The Fourth Annual Pokémon World Tournament
by T1meslayer
Summary: Unova prepares for an influx of prominent trainers from around the world looking to test their might and become a champion of the acclaimed Pokémon World Tournament. A serialized Pokémon story that is currently on hiatus! Check the final chapter for details. Rated 'T' for technical animal fighting if you choose to categorize it that way, as well as potential romantic subplots.
1. Final Preparations

_**It's not cliché to start your new project with an author's introduction around here, is it?**_

_**Well this one is going to be a slightly different beast than my Stardew Valley piece, so I think it's warranted. I'm not planning on doing something like this very often anyway.**_

_**Whereas the Stardew story was mostly just experimenting with publishing a general one-off story, this new Pokémon-themed project is going to be an experiment in serialized chapter-based storytelling. Right now my goal is going to be a chapter a week (uploaded on Mondays), but we'll see how that shakes out once I get past the first few expository chapters I may or may not have already written.**_

_**Basically all you need to know is I've been enamored by the idea of a worldwide gathering for the Pokémon World Tournament from Black 2 and White 2 (2012) for some time, so this project is going to be an expression of how the event might look in more of a cinematic/verbose capacity.**_

_**Which means you can expect commentators discussing Pokémon battles as though this were a Smash Bros. tournament or EVO. It's a well-worn subject here on based on my cursory research, so why not throw my hat in the ring?**_

_**Over time I'll be trying to incorporate characters from all Regions up to Alola, as my desire to write a Pokémon story is somewhat inspired by the upcoming release of Sword and Shield but there is not nearly enough information available as of this publication to justify including any of those games' characters.**_

_**At some point I'll get to chapters depicting battles between various Gym Leaders and Region Champions (including at least one of the protagonists from each game), so if there are any match-ups you'd be interested in seeing I'm more than willing to take ideas that can fill up a potentially obscene number of brackets.**_

**_So without further adieu, let's jump into some of that world-building, canon-diverging exposition. Hope you enjoy!_**

* * *

"How much longer is this goin' to take, darlin'?" Driftveil City Gym Leader Clay asks with his hands at his hips as he stands behind a figure that was kneeling down with her upper body hidden inside an open wall panel.

Clay's hat and leather chaps pegged him as a fan of old-fashioned Westerns, but engorged his already large-bodied silhouette enough to block out whatever light was left in a dwindling afternoon for the person before him. They were behind the Pokémon World Tournament facility south of Driftveil, a domed structure that stood on a currently quiet and dark island as the woman rummaged around in what seemed to be a mess of wires and circuit breakers.

At least she was up until Clay cut off her light, at which point she sighs and pulls her head free to glare over her shoulder and gesture him aside with a flick of her head.

"Maybe if you'd be willing to suck up your pride and get down on your knees this could go faster. Until then, quit breathing down my neck like a needy Elekid."

The disgruntled woman was none other than Nimbasa City's Gym Leader Elesa, still rocking her jet-black hair with twin ponytails that curled around her on the floor and a matter-of-fact cosmopolitan tone that greatly contrasted with Clay's country drawl. She was wearing a more casual outfit than her usual runway model attire, just jeans and a blue crop top with red trim around her waist and sleeves.

Clay heartily laughs at her comment as he straightens out his posture and steps aside, beating his hat once against his right leg.

"Just as spunky as ever, Elesa. I knew there was a reason I liked havin' you 'round these parts." He puts his hat back on and adjusts it to sit properly. "I think I'll pass on your offer though. Electricity and I don't mix too well, I'm afraid."

"Yeah, that's what I thought." Elesa mutters under her breath before reaching into the panel again. "Why are you in such a hurry anyway? The tournament doesn't start for another week."

"But you never know when some eager region'll show up early lookin' for a tour. Gotta be ready for 'em."

Clay pulls a brown, strapless Xtransceiver out of his pocket and takes a few steps away from the electrician. He starts looking through messages from various officials the world over both regarding the upcoming tournament and his mining operations.

"I suppose…" Elesa grunts as she tugs a particularly tough wire free, and then sighs before continuing. "Though Skyla told me they aren't expecting anyone in Mistralton until the weekend at least. You've got time."

"Well that doesn't account for the ports in Castelia, now does it? Not to mention stop some lone wolf flyin' in on the back of a Pokémon."

"Why not just call Burgh? I'm sure he keeps log of when ships are supposed to dock over there."

"Nah. That boy's too busy with all his artsy-fartsy junk to be involved with all that nautical business." Clay walks back over and puts his communicator away, practically blocking Elesa's light again — much to her chagrin.

"You could still try. I'm sure anything would be better than Charjabugging me all evening," she huffs.

"Would you quit it with the damn puns and just get this done so I won't have to bug you?" Clay crosses his arms and taps his foot on the diamond fractal patterned tile flooring that covered the little island housing the facility.

"Skyla thinks the puns are cute…"

"Well Skyla ain't here, and she sure as hell ain't payin' you to do this job."

"You're not paying me either, Clay!" Elesa pulls her head out again and scowls at him. "I'm doing this out of the kindness of my heart because I happen to enjoy participating in these tournaments."

"Oh… Right." Clay clears his throat and scratches the puffy sideburns on his right cheek. "Still, it's my city's livelihood you're delayin'. So quit yappin' and get zappin'."

He turns and starts to saunter away, arms crossed over his chest.

"Then you an' airhead can go get a room with how much you're talkin' 'bout her," he continues under his breath.

Elesa stands up and whistles, causing the cowboy to stop in his tracks and look back over his shoulder.

"What Skyla and I do or don't do behind closed doors is none of your business, Clay," Elesa says with a bit of red running to her cheeks. She grabs the edge of the open panel and shuts it with a loud clang that echoes over the water.

"Besides I'm already done."

"Well I'll be a Primape's uncle." He shakes his head and turns to face the building as Elesa begins to flip the circuits.

Slowly the island comes to life. First a series of floor lights come on in sequence, drawing eyes across an emerald-green pathway from the tunnel back to Driftveil City and the domed structure. Then a circle of the same buried light fixtures surrounding the dormant fountain at the east side flicker on all at once to illuminate its sapphire-blue base and the golden Pokéball fixture in the center. Soon after that skyward-facing ball starts to spew, mixing the buzz of electricity with the sounds of running water. A number of lampposts and some vending machines turn on next, brightening up still-dark areas including the island's small southern dock.

Then came the dome itself.

After a pair of spotlights turn on to illuminate red and blue banners on either side of the building's entrance, screens on all three sides of the entryway's exterior structure go from pitch black to teal blue. They're all on a default setting, showing a barely visible image of the Unova region's lightning-inspired Pokémon League icon as scan lines travel down each screen. A few strips of neon cyan light fixtures around the upper-edges of the otherwise clinical and angular grey dome light up, followed by the entire roof starting to strobe with navy blue lines that travel outwardly until they hit the edges of the screens they're being displayed on.

Clay takes a few steps back from the building with a wide grin, which elicits a smug smirk out of Elesa as she walks over to also take in the view.

"Magnificent, ain't it?"

"As always. Now all we need are some good battlers to fill the place up."

The cowboy puts his large hand on the slender model's shoulder, causing her to tip slightly toward him.

"Good battlers we've got no shortage of. I think this is going to be a special year for the PWT."


	2. The Birth of an International Phenomenon

The Pokémon World Tournament had humble roots.

After Zinzolin of Team Plasma's Seven Sages was arrested in the Cold Storage facility that previously stood south of Driftveil, Clay came to despise having the city's most notable landmark being all over the news due to police activity.

Not all publicity is good publicity according to The Mining King of Driftveil.

He held off on taking a few orders so that the bulk of his company could focus on a more personal project he was financing. The old Cold Storage buildings were razed, with a world-class battling facility rising up in their place.

Outside of accidentally unearthing a passageway to the Castelia Sewers on the western side of the island, construction went off without a hitch.

Within a year the building was complete.

Just three months after that, Clay hosted Unova's first Gym Leader invitational.

Compared to where things would come within the next few years, this first event was rather small. But at the time it was a big deal that all eleven leaders from across the region (including Cilan, Chili and Cress before they disbanded the Striaton City Gym) were willing and able to take time away from their posts so they could participate. The event was a massive success that not only stoked the fiery pride of the Unovan people in their region and Gym Leaders, but also brought the kind of spotlight onto Driftveil City that Clay had hoped for. Before long it would be a household name.

The tournament's legitimacy was bolstered by the fact that its first victor, Iris of Opelucid City, used her growing battle clout as a bargaining chip to become the new Champion of the Unova Pokémon League months later.

Though this first tournament was primarily Unova-based in its battling populace, tourists who were visiting the region at the time flocked to Driftveil in droves so they could see the event. One such visitor was Sinnoh's sitting League Champion Cynthia — still on vacation in her friend Caitlin's beachside villa.

Cynthia was positively enamored by the idea of strengthening bonds between individuals through the art of battling, and felt there could be a great opportunity to do the same thing between nations.

So upon returning to Sinnoh, she talked to that region's Gym Leaders about attending the next event.

Thus the second annual tournament became the first annual International Pokémon World Tournament. The name somehow stuck in spite of the fact that some marketing person's zeal to create an important sounding title resulted the rest of the world's confusion at redundantly referring to a 'world tournament' as being 'International.'

A particularly ferocious match between the Electric-type Gym Leaders Elesa and Volkner from Sunyshore City made headlines thanks to dazzling front-page images captured as sparks danced around the already sleek, modern battle facility. Word of the tournament spread fast, and soon participants were eagerly telling their friends around the world to join in so the battles could get grander.

Jasmine from Olivine City was easily convinced during one of her frequent trips to Sunyshore and spread excitement throughout the Johto region just as Saffron City's Sabrina brought the news to Kanto after a movie shoot in Pokéstar Studios.

Elesa told the story of her tabloid-stealing battle during a photo shoot with Unova superstar Nancy and Hoenn contest idol Lisia, and soon enough Hoenn was abuzz with excitement too.

When the second International PWT was held, five regions participated. It was a truly worldwide sensation that had viewers tuning in by the millions. Nancy and Lisia hosted the event, bringing with them legions of fans who were more into the Pokémon lifestyle and contest scene than strictly battling — and nearly doubling Driftveil's rapidly increasing tourist profit margin in the process.

Advertisers flooded in to be a part of the PWT, and rumors began to spread. Would there be any more tournaments added in the future? What if the Gym Leaders of the world also got to face off with the Elite Four members or Champions of each Pokémon League?

Fanbases for every conceivable major trainer the world over grew, but none more than the first three PWT winners: Iris, Byron of Canalave City and Clair of Blackthorn City.

Everyone wanted a piece of that victory pie, and the tournament became an event that people referred to as a reason to keep getting up in the morning. "Eventually we'll get to see our friends in Driftveil again," they'd say. With that kind of buzz, it was inevitable that more regions would look to take part.

Kalos was the next official member of the PWT. Wattson from Mauville City was eager to talk his friend Clemont from Lumiose City into participating during one of the boy's trips to Hoenn (Wattson did remodel his city after Lumiose after all, it would be silly not to come and visit). Clemont, alongside Professor Sycamore's assistants Sina and Dexio, invited every Gym Leader in Kalos.

The assistants found out about the tournament during their vacation to the island region of Alola, which was somewhat near the coast of Kanto. Alolan Trial Captain Mina heard about the event during a trip to the Kanto port city of Vermilion, but unfortunately they were not able to join the festivities that year.

Alola had yet to establish its own Pokémon League after all. Though you can be sure that joining this now-acclaimed event was another signal to Alola's Professor Kukui that he should be creating their League as soon as possible.

The third annual International PWT went without Alola, but it was not devoid of good battles because of their absence. Six regions were enough to pack the playing field with at least 48 Gym Leaders, and Clay had one more surprise up his sleeve.

During the last day of the now three-day long event, it was unveiled that a new bracket would be added: The Champion's Tournament. Sitting Champions like Cynthia or Lance from the Indigo Plateau between Johto and Kanto would face off alongside figures like Calem from Kalos and Dawn from Sinnoh, who had defeated their region's Leagues but did not personally accept Hall of Fame challenges.

The Champion's Tournament broke broadcast viewership records and dominated social media chatter for days. Steven Stone, sitting Champion of the Pokémon League in Ever Grande City, took home a freshly engraved belt alongside the Leader Tournament's victor, Roxanne from Rustboro City (A "Hoenn Sweep" as people would henceforth refer to the year's proceedings).

Within just four years, Clay's ambitious undertaking paid back in spades. Driftveil City and Unova as a whole became widely known while industries began to perch comfortably on his solid, earthy foundation. Airlines and cruises offered special deals during PWT season, drawing in larger audiences each year. Merchandise and brand synergies were pumped out. Hotels were constructed and expanded in Driftveil, Nimbasa and Castelia to make space for all the attendees.

Plus, Pokémon battling was gaining more of a name for itself as a spectator sport in all Regions. Sure, it didn't draw as much of an all-encompassing audience as the Galar Region's Pokémon League (which had yet to file for entry in the tournament), but it was starting to approach those levels.

As Clay and Elesa put the finishing touches on the lighting across that island just south of Drifveil, they were a week away from the fourth annual International Pokémon World Tournament.

A tournament that, as Clay himself said, promised to be bigger and better than ever before.


	3. Introducing the Fourth Annual PWT

Both hands on a vanity, Yancy leaned close to her reflection in the mirror and stares intently at her muted, blue eyes. She takes a deep breath through her nose and lets it out slowly to fog up a rough circle. Over the expressionless flat line of her mouth, she drags her finger across the sleek surface with a wincing squeak to draw a cartoonish happy smile. Then she curls the ends of her lips up to try and match that shape before the fog fades away.

Keeping her smile up, the girl steps away from her reflection and flaunts around with half-steps left and right as she pretends to be greeting fans, posing for photos and puffing up the blue-tipped end of her large pink ponytail that hung off the left side of her head like a step drill. After poking the small birthmark under her left eye and pulling down her eyelid to let it snap back into place, Yancy whirls around on her heels and saunters out of her dressing room.

As soon as she passes through the doorway she was her peppy, confident alter ego Nancy once again.

Nancy's heels click along tiled flooring as she weaves around a number of rushing technicians and producers in the cerulean-shaded corridor that snaked around the exterior of the PWT arena. Most of the crew had to shout just to hear each other over the thumping rock music and cheering crowds just on the other side of the wall. However, a few did take the opportunity to greet the superstar as she passed.

"Nancy! Good luck tonight."

"Tell Lisia I said hi."

"That red clasp is so cute, you have to tell me where to get one."

"Any advice for my daughter? She wants to get into Pokémon fashion."

Most of the comments unfortunately had to be met with a fleeting thanks or a greeting that sounded sincere despite Nancy clearly rushing to reach her destination. For the last two, however, she slows her pace and twirls around to walk backwards for a few paces.

"Oh this? You'll have to ask Fantina, she gave it to me."

Her right hand rests on the Pokéball-themed clasp over her sternum that pretty much holds the entire white top together.

She smiles and adds on, "If you want Poké-fashion advice, she's also probably the best person to ask. Sinnoh is all about dressing those cute little monsters!"

With a polite wave she turns around again and continues her laser-focused walk to the end of the hall.

When she emerges on the other side of the door, she is in the arena's main entrance room. Nearly every inch of space in the center of the room was stuffed with people, those looking to view the PWT's opening ceremony and a few Gym Leaders scattered throughout who were entertaining guests with endless games of 20 questions. Most of the crowd funneled in through the entrance, passed through two emerald weapon-clutching statues that stood as décor and either moved over the cerulean carpet to the visitor stands or hooked behind those statues to reach information desks on each side of the room.

As the idol stands in front of the "Employees Only" doorway on the left side of the room, stunned by the amount of people, a few catch wind of her subdued entrance. When more begin to trickle out of line so they can mob around her, Nancy lets them down gently as a few black-suited G-Men hold back more rambunctious fans so she can continue on her way.

Nancy first makes her way past the informational desk (saying hello to Janet as she went, eliciting a smile from the otherwise professional concierge in blue) and behind the statue that was holding a sharpened spear. It appeared ready to toss the thing right into its partner's lustrous, geometric shield. She slips up the stairs behind the desk and waves to a gruff-looking mustachioed man in a mall security outfit who parts a velvet rope for her.

Just before ascending the second set of stairs heading into the main area of the arena, a few fans holler messages of love toward the idol's backside. She pauses and turns around to offer her adoring crowd a grin, then blows out a few kisses before scampering away from the sounds of fainting tweens.

At the top of the second set of stairs was a fairly large balcony overlooking the caged battle stage. Behind the stage was an LCD screen that practically stretched all the way to the ceiling so that balcony residents and huge crowds of cheering fans surrounding the cage alike could see just as clearly. Right now it showcased sweeping shots of Koffing and the Toxics, a three-person punk-rock band from Virbank City that seemed to be holding the audience over.

As soon as Nancy stepped onto the balcony, a number of heads turned toward her. A female producer in a light brown leather suit walks up and ushers her toward a somewhat generic looking news anchor's desk with three chairs, the rightmost occupied by a teal-haired girl with a lightning bolt ponytail that came out the back of her head and a pair of flowing ponytail-like bangs framing her face.

"Took you long enough, Nancy." The producer was clearly annoyed as she practically pushes the pink-haired model into the leftmost chair. "Here we thought you were never going to show up."

"Oh relax Syd, you know I need to psych myself up for a big performance like this," Nancy remarks as she sits down and clears her throat, then checking her hair in a personal mirror from her purse.

"I know that, but Viola really wanted to have both stars here to test camera quality before she had to get ready for battle—"

"And I think I did just fine on my own, thanks." The teal-haired girl cuts in with a sickeningly cheery disposition that far exceeded Nancy's. She offers the other star a grin and they take each other's hands giggling.

"Good to see you again, Nancy."

"You too Lisia. Always a pleasure."

The producer rolls her eyes and goes back over to the crew as they messed with their ceiling-mounted dolly camera to get a few different potential angles of the desk.

As the girls settled in for a little pre-show chit-chat, it was clear how much more comfortable Lisia was in her own skin than Nancy — which makes sense considering Yancy usually has to turn on her extroverted side, unlike the Hoenn contest idol. Everything from her laid-back posture to the two-piece white outfit, accentuated with starry blue fabric and fluffy arm-and-leg warmers designed to replicate the woolen down of her signature Pokémon Altaria, made her pop. Though to be fair, her hard blue-and-white look made a great companion to Nancy's pastel red-and-white. They looked like a coordinated pair in every sense except for the extra chair separating them.

The producer interrupts to hand out a few scripts that the girls review as technicians fit headphones on each. Color coordinated of course: Red for Nancy and blue for Lisia, but functionally identical down to the little attached microphone that folded down from their right ears. They were also fitted with lavalier microphones so that whatever sound team was working behind the scenes would have a few quality options.

There were arguments back-and-forth about word choice as Lisia scribbled all over her script with a sparkly, blue gel pen to match whatever changes were being programmed into the teleprompters situated at three points underneath where the camera could move. Left, right and center.

During this final preparation phase, Koffing and the Toxics had finished the last song in their set and were moved off-stage to make room for Clay. He called out a few announcements through a retractable ceiling microphone like a referee at a boxing match. They amounted to:

"Thanks for coming!"

"Buy some concessions while you're here!"

"The show will be starting right quick, so hold out a bit longer."

Then he left the crowds clamoring for everything to start. A few spotlights around the edge of the stage waved back and forth as though signaling a movie premiere at Pokéstar Studios. Ambient music flooded into the room through speakers on the ceiling as the rock band set up their instruments toward the rightmost side of the circular arena.

A slight brown man runs up the balcony stairs wearing slacks and a tucked green button-up. He eagerly waves to catch the producer's attention, and she nods back before turning to the stars.

"Alright girls, it's showtime. Hope you got it all out so we won't have any hitches like last year."

As she walks up to the desk and pulls away their scripts, Lisia suddenly tugs her back with a sharp, "hold on!"

Syd gives her an annoyed glare and taps her foot as Lisia scribbles a few more notes on the last page with her tongue poking out of the right side of her mouth.

"Just a little here… And… Alright!"

She hands the script over with a cheeky grin. The producer snatches it away and quickly scans over the changes. In the margins she would find: 

_Remember to have fun, Sydney 3_

When she looks back up, Lisia blows her a kiss. Then Lisia and Nancy start to giggle as the producer rolls her eyes again and storms back behind the camera.

The camera is positioned to its central point for a direct shot of the desk as the idols squirm around until they're comfortable. The analog green text of the teleprompters flicker to life and start to scroll up-and-down at various speeds before settling back at the top. In the arena outside, all of the lights around the house begin to dim and brighten again. Suddenly the cheers and applause of every audience member grow to deafening heights even behind the glass walls separating the balcony.

They all knew what was coming.

"Alright team, we've been working hard to put this together. But we've done it for three years now so I'm assuming you'll all be able to get it right."

A few awkward laughs rise out of the crew as they listen to the director behind their principal DP gets things rolling.

"This is the best team in the world and I have nothing but confidence. So let's give the people what they want."

This time there are a few more eager whoops as the director steps out and clears his throat.

"Nancy, Lisia. Hope you're ready, because we're on in Five… Four… Three…"

He had been closing each finger in time, and when he gets to two the process becomes entirely silent. Two fingers. One finger. Then he points toward the stars as their camera starts rolling.

On the massive screen above the stage, Nancy and Lisia would see themselves projected like towering giants. What they wouldn't see are the millions of televisions all showing them at a much smaller scale across at least eight different Regions.

"Welcome, welcome, welcome!" Lisia begins with a cheery call.

"I know you've been waiting as eagerly as we have trainers and Poké-fans, but the wait is finally over," Nancy jumps in immediately after.

They were both trained T.V. personalities, so there was almost no indication that their eyes were darting to follow the scrolling teleprompter just under their camera.

"It's time for the fourth annual International Pokémon World Tournament; Live from Driftveil City, Unova!"

The girls look at each other with a passing grin and giggle as B-Roll of the stadium's cheering crowd cut onto the screen underneath the tournament's logo.

"As always, I'm Lisia — Hoenn's shining, shimmering contest starlet."

"And I'm Nancy, bringing you all the flavor of my home Region."

"Some of you must be sick of seeing us year after year, but don't worry. We're not the only repeat customers here. Just outside, ready to provide music for every single battle during this weekend's festivities, is the ever-illustrious Virbank City Gym Leader Roxie with her band: Koffing and the Toxics!"

The crowd is uproarious as the screen cuts to the trio rock band from earlier. The bald roughneck Nicky, sporting his Krookodile leather jacket, lays out a quick beat on the drums. Next to him the guitarist, Billy Joe, flips out her messy ponytail before strumming along. In front of them both is the fairly young white-haired girl with a Venopede-themed bass guitar.

They all play for about 15 seconds before pointing toward the balcony, at which point the cameras cut back.

"Now…" Nancy trails off as she starts before letting out an overdramatic huff and toying with her birthmark mole. "Some of you might be wondering what happened to Dome Ace Tucker, who helped us with some more… Battle-oriented commentary last year."

"Nancy and I aren't exactly the most skilled combatants after all," Lisia says as she playfully shadowboxes toward Nancy.

The pink-haired idol rolls her eyes.

"Well unfortunately, he wasn't able to make it out."

"Hoenn is still trying to rebuild its Battle Frontier. Should be open… Possibly soon?" Lisia shrugs. "Even I don't really know what that schedule is like."

"But before we upset any powerful people…" Nancy rests a hand on Lisia's shoulder and gives her an eyebrow-raised look. "We wanted to introduce our third in this little… Ménage à trois."

"Oh!" Lisia covers her mouth with an overdramatic gasp. "Why Nancy, that's awfully… Forward of you!"

Nancy looks back toward the camera with a smile. The whole exchange was clearly rehearsed, but the girls were making it look very natural despite how cheesy it all was.

"It's not all that saucy, love. Already a taken gal I'm afraid. It's just a little hint for all of our perceptive members of the audience."

"Oh? Well, do tell!"

Nancy nods. "You see our guest in the commentator's booth is a pretty well-known star as well. Perhaps not out of our own Pokéstar Studios here in Unova, but certainly in foreign cinema."

"That's rights! And she somehow manages to balance that stardom with the pressures and tribulations of being a world-class Pokémon battler."

"More than world-class. This lovely lady's star shines across the universe I'd say. Especially as the Champion of our sister Pokémon League in Kalos!"

"I'm sure you know who we're talking about already, so give a warm welcome to the one. The only. The Grand Duchess of Kalos: Diantha!"

The camera pulls back as both Nancy and Lisia stand and turn toward the approaching radiant, motherly figure. Diantha confidently struts over and gives both of her co-hosts a hug, showing how much taller she stood than the two younger girls. As was most well known from her Champion station and most red carpet appearance, Diantha wore a minimalist white shirt and shorts that only went to her thighs. Over that she wore a matching white jacket with a stiff, outstretched dress-like hem around her waist and what appeared to be a pair of angel wings on her back. Her silvering brown hair was held in a series of buns like a star around her head.

The Champion takes her seat between the idols and lets out a sharp sigh as she looks around the room. Both Nancy and Lisia had their seats turned to look at her.

"My, my. Quite a lovely set-up you have here!" Diantha's voice was raspier than the others, and she had a deep accent denoting her Kalosian origins.

"Only made all the lovelier by you, Diantha," Lisia chimes in, eliciting a chuckle.

"Oh stop. You're too kind."

Nancy is the first to turn back toward the camera in front of them. By now the crowd had settled down from the excited cheer at seeing a Champion who made it to the Finals last year sitting with their announcers.

"As I said, Diantha is going to be our chief battle strategy correspondent for this year's proceedings. Which unfortunately means she will not be able to compete in the Champion's Tournament on Sunday."

A few boos ring out, but Lisia quickly overtakes them.

"However, all things considered that might not be such a bad thing. We're taking in a whole new world of competitors this year and making the most out of a few of their traditions."

As both girls turn to face Diantha again, she nods.

"That's right. For the first time, the archipelago of Alola is joining us out here on the national spotlight. Their Island Challenge Trial Captains have been sanctioned as Gym Leaders thanks to the hard work of Professor Kukui, and the Alolan Pokémon League's first champion Sun will be competing in my steed."

She pauses for the cheering and looks to both of the other girls, settling on Lisia.

"I wouldn't want my lovely Gardevoir to go up against his spooky Decidueye anyhow."

Both Diantha and Lisia then turn toward Nancy, who swerves back to the camera.

"Well we won't have to worry about his standing for a while yet. But to celebrate Alola's inclusion in the PWT, we're bringing a taste of the island life here to you."

She sweeping gestures with her right arm, at which point the screen cuts to a tranquil overhead view of the four Alolan islands: Poni, Melemele, Akala and Ula'ula.

A logo featuring a spiky maroon explosive shape with four multicolored boxing gloves above it slowly fades onto the islands.

"Our ceremonial opening match is going to be a unique four-on-four duel representing the guardian deities of Alola. A Battle Royal!"

"For those who like to stay on the mainland, this style of battling is a little more complicated to pick up," Lisia continues for Nancy. "The match ends when all three of one trainer's Pokémon faint, but victory is determined by how many points one scores while knocking out any of the other Pokémon around them."

"In other words, the first trainer who gets knocked out could still emerge victorious," Nancy finishes. "It's quite exciting!"

Diantha clears her throat and speaks up next after brushing her jacket down.

"Taking part in this Battle Royal are The Masked Royal, Alola's most famous proponent of the battling style, as well as Unova's three recent Champions. A meeting of the cultures, as it were!"

"Boy-oh-boy, I'm getting more excited the more I hear about it," Nancy chuckles as she leans back and plays with her yellow Pokéball earring.

"Well don't worry, Nancy. We'll be seeing this inaugural match in all its glory just a half-hour from now. More than enough time for a word from our sponsors and a quick show by Roxie for the audience at home!"

"So don't turn that dial," Diantha says as all three girls turn forward. "We'll be back soon with all the battling action you can handle. Right here at the fourth annual Pokémon World Tournament."

All three smile and wave. A few seconds later the screen cuts away and the director yells cut.


	4. An Age-old Question

Iris hooks her left arm under her right just below the elbow and pulls it across her body. She stretches her right arm until there's a soft popping sound, and then flips the position to stretch out her left arm as well.

After the cross-body shoulder stretches, Unova's sitting Champion bends forward to touch her open, sandaled toes. The wide sleeves of her pink-and-white princess's outfit fall around her hands and her large palm tree ponytail falls forward onto the floor, barely held back by the emerald-bejeweled crown.

"Are you ready for your match?" A gruff, raspy voice echoes through the hallway.

The voice was loud and distinct over the sound of muffled chatter on the other side of the grey sliding doors Iris was stretching in front of. It also brought an immediate smile to the girl's face as she straightens out and throws her ponytail over her head, ending with her arms outstretched like a star in one fluid motion.

She twirls in the direction of the voice on one foot and stomps the other foot down. By then, Opelucid City's Spartan Mayor Drayden had stopped just a few feet away with both thumbs hooked under his purple overall straps.

"Am I ever not?"

The cheery Champion finally responds before running up and tackle hugging the buff man with a Druddigon-style white beard covering his mouth.

"You're certainly quicker to the gun than this old man, Iris." Drayden chuckles as he throws his arms around her. He barely moved when she jumped into him, but it was more than easy for him to lift her into the air soon after.

As soon as he lets go, Iris lands both feet on the ground and stumbles back a few paces to brush off her dress.

"Are you ready to see me wipe the floor with three bodies at once, Drayden?"

"Careful there, Miss Champion. Your inflated ego is showing," he chuckles while crosses his arms over his chest. "You've never competed in a Battle Royal before, have you?"

"Well no, but it can't be that much harder than a regular battle, right?" Iris huffs as she puts her hands on her hips.

"I'd wager it's more difficult than your youngster confidence might lead you to believe."

This third voice came from the other side of the hall than Drayden came from and draws the attention of both Opelucid residents. Iris turns around so they could watch the fiery-haired former Champion saunter toward the door, all six Pokéballs on his tassels bouncing against the man's beige poncho.

"To be young and reckless. Makes you miss those old days, doesn't it Alder?"

Drayden nods and catches Alder in a firm handshake. They were about the same size and build, towering over the younger girl.

"Certainly. I feel older and older the more I watch Benga come into his own on grand adventures."

They share a casual laugh as Iris looks between the two. She shrugs and starts to adjust the large pink bow on her waist.

"Maybe it's time for you old timers to step down and let us run the show then."

Drayden and Alder both look down at her again, and the bearded man scoffs.

"Never forget the wisdom of the elders who helped you get where you are, Iris."

"It's true," Alder continues as though this were pre-planned. "If you're terrible to people on your way up, they'll return that sentiment twice-over when you're on your way down."

Iris looks down at her feet while being calmly scolded and mumbles apologies.

Before they can spend too much time on that, however, a red light above the sliding doors begins to flash. All three figures look toward it, and then Drayden clasps a hand on Iris' shoulder.

"Looks like it's time for you two to go on. I'll be cheering from the stands," he says before taking a step back and turning to leave.

"Alright, catch you later Drayden!" Iris grins as she eagerly waves goodbye.

After a moment with Iris and Alder standing silently together, blue strips on either side of the slit between the doors start to glow in a gradient with the darker shades traveling down. Then the doors open, hitting the two Champions with a wall of sounds from the crowd of people around the arena before them.

"Good luck out there," Alder remarks while patting Iris' head.

She ducks her head down a little at the feeling but smiles and pulls up her sleeves, showing off a little more of her slender, brown arms.

"Same to you, Alder!"

They start walking out together.

From the open sliding doors at the other side of the room comes Nate, a youngish boy wearing a blue jacket and white shorts over a short sleeve diving suit, talking to The Masked Royal, a shirtless man in black-and-white pants with a luchador mask that gave him fire-like horns for eyebrows.

Though all four approach the elevated stage in the middle of the room via caged pathways at about the same speed, Iris is so encouraged by the rancorous cheers that she races ahead and gets to the center first. She mugs for the camera and waves at the attendees with both hands.

The other three catch up soon after and start to exchange idle handshakes. Stickers representing the four colored boxing gloves of the Battle Royal logo had been placed on stage for the trainers to take: Green on top, red on the bottom, yellow on the left and blue on the right.

As they spread out, the large screen behind the stage changes from the PWT's logo to the three commentators at their balcony desk.

"**Who's ready to get this party started?"** Lisia's voice echoes out of speakers across the arena.

Cheers and applause ring out as members of the crowd closest to the stage start to bang and rattle the cage around it. The four competitors look up toward the balcony over the mass of viewers.

"**To commemorate Alola joining this year's Pokemon World Tournament, we're kicking things off with a ceremonial island-style Battle Royal,"** the blue-haired star continues. **"And boy is the stage packed with talent!"**

"**It certainly is, Lisia,"** Diantha starts next as she leans over her arms on the desk. **"In the red corner is the king of the Battle Royal, here to show us all how it's done. Le tout-puissant Masked Royal!"**

"Oh yeah!"

The masked man cries out with an intense energy before flexing both arms under his shoulders, and then pumping his right arm in the air to show off a Pokéball he clutched with white knuckles.

When at least one woman in the crowd swoons louder than the rest, The Masked Royal grins and gently brushes his goatee.

"**And in the yellow corner is the former Champion of the Unova Pokémon League. An unmistakable powerhouse all the way from his fire-red hair to his coal-black sandals,"** Lisia says. **"Give it up for Alder!"**

Alder takes a deep bow before pulling out one of the Pokéballs attached to the belt of his white pants that were hidden by his poncho.

"**Right beside Alder is his successor, the current sitting Champion of the Unova League and first ever victor of the PWT. It's Iris!"** Diantha says.

The lone girl on stage jumps in place a few times, clapping and kicking her legs back. Then she starts to wave eagerly at different sections of the audience.

"**Then last, but certainly not least. Representing the blue team is one of the few trainers to have beaten Iris in her short time as Champion. The boy whose heroism saved Unova from an icy demise at the hands of Team Plasma. Former movie star and deep sea artifact hunter…"**

Diantha elbows Nancy, who seemed to be droning on and on with a goofy look on her face. She clears her throat as her cheeks run red.

"**Let's hear it for Nate!"**

The boy tips his red visor toward the balcony before tossing his Pokéball up-and-down with the other hand.

Once the fighters were all introduced, they turn toward the center of the diamond they were standing in. Diantha rattles off the rules one more time: Three Pokémon per trainer, the match ends when the first trainer loses their whole team, the victor is chosen by number of knock outs.

Then things get kicked off to Roxie's band. Their rendition of the Battle Royal theme opens with a mellow drumbeat that Roxie accentuates with bass warbling to sound more mechanical. Billy Joe has her guitar traded in for a keyboard, which she plays alongside a trumpet player that joined the trio.

After a second of playing, numbers start to flash on-screen. The audience reads along:

3…

2…

1…

Go!


	5. A Royal Opener

Four Pokéballs fly into the air and simultaneously shoot beams of red energy toward the stage.

Nate sends out his Emboar. Iris sends out her Lapras. Alder sends out his Krookodile. The Masked Royal sends out his Alolan Ninetales. As the four Pokémon settle on the ground in front of their trainers, the snowy nine-tailed fox lets out an eerie cry that reverberates over the crowd and condenses as a swirling cloud on the ceiling.

The dark clouds expand until they cover the entire area above the arena, and then start to drop sporadic chunks of ice. Those occasional pieces make way for a barrage of hail that starts to pelt the combatants and their Pokémon.

"**Right off the bat we have some inclement weather on the battlefield,"** Nancy announces as Nate, the Emboar and Krookodile all cover or duck their heads.

"**I was so hoping we would see a good few Alolan Pokémon from The Masked Royal, and he certainly delivered!"** Diantha gently claps her hands together. **"Ninetales from Alola are quite beautiful, and well known for their Snow Warning abilities."**

As Nate blocks some hail with his arms, he catches the gaze of everyone else on the field. They were all waiting for the right moment to strike.

"Fairy and Water-types don't bode well for us Emboar," he remarks before holding out a Pokéball and returning the flaming pig.

"We're in the same boat there."

Alder also prepares to return his Pokémon, but is stopped by The Masked Royal's command to halt. He orders his Ninetales to perform Ice Shard, buffeting the former Champion's Ground/Dark-type with icy daggers that send it staggering back into more hail.

Iris capitalizes on the moment and throws out her arm, commanding Lapras to follow suit with its own Ice Shard.

Hit from two sides at once, the Krookodile flies past Nate's newly summoned Leavanny and slams into the arena's cage. It stumbles forward once the onslaught stops, and then falls to the floor. Alder briefly snarls as he returns the fainted monster.

"Damn… Bad choice of starters," he mumbles.

"**Already we have one down folks!"** Lisia leans into the camera with a grin. **"These champs aren't pulling punches."**

"**But with all of those Ice Shards flying at once, who do we award the K.O. point to?" **Nancy asks, turning to Diantha.

"**The last hit was delivered from Lapras,"** she responds. **"So I think we have to give it to Team Green."**

Iris cheers and jumps in place as her icon on the top-right corner of the screen receives a star point.

"Don't celebrate so fast there," The Masked Royal calls as his Ninetales turns toward that corner. "You've still gotta deal with a max power Freeze-Dry, oh yeah!"

Ninetales' eyes glow and it pulls onto its rear legs. The air around Lapras starts to fill with slivers of ice.

"**Freeze-Dry is an interesting technique to have. It freezes moisture in the air and body, making it the only Ice move strong against Water-types,"** Diantha remarks.

"No way I'm letting you hit me Masky. Dodge it, Lapras!"

Iris throws her arms off to the left, and Lapras moves the same way on a small wave of water.

A jagged block of ice forms where Lapras was originally sitting, completely missing its target. However the sea monster moves right in front of Nate's Leavanny, which was charging forward.

"Got her — Leaf Blade!"

The green-and-yellow bug stretches out its scythe-like arms with a glint and cuts large swipes across its opponent's form. First to the right, then to the left and finally an uppercut that flips Lapras onto its shell with a cry.

"**Ohh, that's a super effective hit!"**

As Leavanny stands with one scythe in the air, it is suddenly hit from the side by a blue-and-red bird that grabs the bug with its talons and flies into the air.

"Now, Braviary. Sky Drop his Leavanny into Ninetales!" Alder punches his left fist into his right hand.

"**This is gunna hurt too,"** Nancy winces.

Alder's bird starts to swoop down at top speed, dragging along its squirming prey. At the last second it careens up to avoid another Ice Shard. However, it dropped the Leavanny — which continues to fly forward, riddled by the ice before crashing into Ninetales. The two Pokémon tumble back together, and The Masked Royal has to jump out of the way to avoid their bodies.

Ninetales slowly gets back on its feet, but Leavanny does not.

"**Looks like that's a point for Alder and his star-spangled Braviary,"** Lisia says as Nate returns his Pokémon and a star appears under Alder's icon in the top-left corner of the screen.

"**But it doesn't seem like he's done yet."**

"That's right," Alder agrees with the narration as he points a finger toward the struggling Lapras. "Hit them with a Superpower, now!"

Braviary caws and starts to glow with a translucent red energy. It flies down toward the stage at top speed again, avoiding another round of Ice Shards from The Masked Royal's Ninetails that were an inch behind its tail feathers.

The bird rams into the Lapras' soft underbelly with such force that a cloud of dust explodes around it, drawing huge fanfare from the audience.

"No!" Iris squeals, covering her eyes. Another star appears by Alder's icon, and the purple-haired girl returns her Pokémon before the dust clears. She mutters an apology to the Pokéball.

The Braviary and Ninetales wait at attention in front of their trainers, letting Nate and Iris choose their next representatives. His Emboar returns to the field while she sends out an Aggron that roars as its large steel frame shakes the arena.

"Alright alright, let's try a Dazzling Gleam, Ninetales!" The Masked Royal announces.

Twinkling pink lights start to blink into existence around the fox as it makes an eerie call again.

"Braviary, Fly out of the way."

Alder's Pokémon obeys, swooping up to the top of the arena. Soon after that the Ninetales' attack goes off, flooding the whole stadium with a blinding flash as those pink lights fly all over. The commentators all cover their eyes and look away.

"**Attacks like Dazzling Gleam are very effective during Battle Royals," **Diantha says. **"They hit everyone else on the field, which is good against Nate's Emboar especially."**

"**But not against that Aggron,"** Lisia adds.

As the light fades, Emboar has stumbled back a few steps, but the bipedal Steel-type triceratops was unfazed. It began charging toward Ninetales while Dazzling Gleam went off and now slams its head into the fox with a sickening crunch.

Ninetales flies back into the gate and then lands limp on the floor.

"**Now that is super effective."** Another star appears by Iris' icon.

The Aggron stands over its victim as The Masked Royal returns it, but turns to find Emboar running forward on its stubby legs.

"Use Arm Thrust, Emboar!"

"Block it, Aggron!"

The pig's flaming necklace grows as it stops its charge to throw both arms down at Aggron. Aggron catches both hands with its own, leaving the two Pokémon grappling in place trying to gain dominance.

As they grapple, both Nate and Iris lean in and start to holler for their respective sides. So much so that they don't watch as The Masked Royal sends out his combat-ready Incineroar.

"Oh yeah! Let's show them what we've got with a blistering Fire Punch."

Incineroar nods and runs over to the grappling duo. The fiery wrestling leaps into the air and curls its right paw into a fist. As soon as the fist bursts into flames, it rockets the punch into Aggron's jaw, sending the heavy behemoth flying. Then the bipedal tiger immediately celebrates its successful attack by showboating and inciting further cheers from the audience.

Emboar stumbles back with its opponent gone and looks at its trainer.

"Let's capitalize, Emboar," Nate calls out when looked to for direction. "Use Flamethrower!"

Emboar nods and turns toward Aggron, flaming necklace roaring high around its head. The pig roars and flames fly out, bathing the Steel-type.

A star point appears in Nate's corner on the bottom-left part of the screen.

"**What a double team!"** Nancy says.

"**They should pay attention to the rest of their competition though,"** Diantha remarks with a finger waggling in the air.

Almost as soon as Diantha brings attention to it, Alder's Braviary emerges from the fading hail clouds and careens into Emboar, knocking the Pokémon to the floor and clawing away with its talons. Incineroar runs over and holds Emboar by the shoulders, keeping the struggling Fire-type down while it gradually takes damage.

"You're my last hope…" Iris mumbles to her third Pokéball before tossing it out.

Out of the digital red lines comes a six-foot yellow dragon with red, axe-like tusks around its jaw. When Haxorus lands on the floor it starts to swipe its tail against the floor with a shrill grinding sound.

"Alright Haxorus, now's our chance. Hit them all with a Rock Slide!"

The Pokémon roars and pounds its tail against the ground repeatedly. A number of large boulders seem to materialize in midair above the trio currently doing battle. Their trainers clamor for the Pokémon to move, but to no avail. Rocks come tumbling down and trap them all in a dusty pile.

A number of gasps come from the audience before it falls into quiet mumbles.

"**What an inspired maneuver,"** Diantha announces to break the silence. **"A wide-range attack with type effectiveness across the board."**

"**Good thing Iris happened to bring her signature Pokémon,"** Lisia continues.

As the commentators discuss where the battle could go from there, the rocks start to fade away. Left on the ground are the bodies of three defeated Pokémon, none moving enough to suggest they would continue fighting.

Three more stars appear next to Iris' name. She cheers, joined by the audience.

Her opponents return their Pokémon and throw out the next round: Nate sends out a Golurk, Alder sends out a Volcarona and The Masked Royale sends out a day form Lycanroc.

"**It's hard to believe, but this fantastic opening match is ending in standoff between all our trainer's final Pokémon,"** Nancy says as she leans in, idly twirling at the drill bit of her hair.

Lisia seems to be looking over some quickly written notes to keep up.

"**Looks like it's Iris' game to win, but Alder could tie things up if he manages to wipe the field."**

"**And he might just be able to, given Volcarona's capabilities,"** Diantha ponders as she rubs her chin. **"A Quiver Dance or two could make it rather unstoppable."**

Alder was clearly on the same page, as he soon commands the large moth-like monster to dance. Quiver Dance boosts its speed and power, evident by a slight yellow glow around rapidly fluttering wings.

The first person to respond is Nate.

"Golurk, use Hammer Arm on Lycanroc!"

Because The Masked Royal was watching Volcarona, he doesn't have time to react before Nate's ghostly blue golem flies over and crushes his Rock-type wolf with a single blow.

A second star appears by Nate's icon on the screen.

As soon as Lycanroc is defeated, a whistle rings out of all the speakers in the stadium. Roxie's band abruptly stops their backing track so that the room is dead silent once the whistling ceases.

"**Well. I guess that's that," **Lisia says.** "Seems like Nate just wanted to end things before Alder had the chance."**

Nate rubs the back of his neck sheepishly while returning his Golurk. Alder and The Masked Royal return theirs as well.

The four trainer's icons at the corners of the large screen pull into the center and rearrange themselves.

_Iris: *****_

_Alder: **_

_Nate: **_

_Masked Royal:_

Iris starts to squirm as she sees her name climb to the top of the leaderboard.

"**In that case, it looks like the winner of our opening Battle Royal is Unova's League Champion. Let's hear it for Iris!"**

Cheers and applause erupt across the room as Iris squeals at the announcement and runs over to her Haxorus. She leaps up on the dragon's back and throws her arms around it, giggling. Haxorus looks over its shoulder and smiles, slowly wagging its tail like a dog. Nate, Alder and The Masked Royal stand by and clap for her.

Hidden in the crowd of viewers, a white-haired Drayden stands up and pulls his right sleeve up with a scoff.

"That girl never ceases to amaze me."


	6. Kayfabe Royal

**_Originally I was going to start the one-on-one tournament battles this week, but I wound up busier than expected preparing for a trip out of state — a trip that was also responsible for the fairly late upload tonight._**

**_I would like to try and set up two or three full tournament brackets [eight combatants per bracket, single elimination] to fill out the next chunk of this story now that we're past primarily expositional stuff. If any of you have suggestions for Gym Leaders or Trial Captains you'd like to see face off, let me know! I'd be down to try a little audience engagement so we can keep me on my toes._**

**_In the meantime, hope you guys have a great week!_**

* * *

"Thank you for joining us, Mr. Royal."

After the tournament's opening match concluded, The Masked Royal was brought out to the main entryway of the stadium. He found himself sitting under the statue with an emerald shield across from Nancy, who was under the statue with the emerald spear. Their chairs were turned slightly toward a single camera operator near the entrance who framed both people completely in the shot, showing Nancy with her right leg crossed over the left to rest a small notebook on. Her shirtless luchador interviewee leaned forward with both hands on his knees.

In the background of the shot was a small crowd of people who had stepped out of the viewing stands. One white-haired woman near the front with a sweater around her waist held up a poster that read: "We 3 The Masked Royal."

"Of course! How could I turn down an offer to sit down with such a great personality?"

He looks toward the camera and gives an overemphasized wink.

"Well I appreciate the flattery," Nancy remarks with a chuckle. "But you're quite a big personality yourself — a well-known and beloved one over in Alola! How does it feel to be the representative of Battle Royals?"

"A lot of young trainers challenge me all the time to test their might, which can be exhausting. But I wouldn't have it any other way; it's my pleasure to encourage young people worldwide! And it helps that I try to keep a healthy work/life balance."

"I suppose that's one of the benefits of keeping your identity a secret?" Nancy idly jots some things in her notebook.

"Oh yeah, you know it cousin!" The Masked Royal grins and straightens out his back. He adjusts his mask. "No one cared who I was before I put on the mask. But now it's a symbol of passion all across the islands, and I rep it with pride!"

Nancy leans in slightly with a curiously raised eyebrow.

"So… Are you saying your everyday alter ego is comparatively uninteresting?" She taps her pencil against the paper. "I find that hard to believe with how boisterous you are."

"Just a boring, normal guy with a boring, normal profession. You could lose me in a crowd of Gumshoos and never know it."

The Masked Royal looks toward the crowd and eagerly waves, eliciting a few cheers and swooning calls.

It takes Nancy a moment to respond, as she looks between her notebook and interviewee trying to parse his metaphor.

"Right…" She mumbles, and then clears her throat. "No chance I could squeeze out any hints as to what that profession might be for our curious audience?"

"Not a chance! I could be a Pokémart clerk, or a Furfrou breeder or even a handsome professor." He laughs and flashes a thumbs up. "I could be anyone and anyone could be me. That's why I wear the mask, woo!"

"Just like The Riolu Girl, eh?"

"Oh yeah, just like her!" The Masked Royal turns to the camera and points out at the implied audience. "Give me a call next time you're making a Brycen-Man flick, Sergio. I'd be happy to fly out for a guest spot!"

"A good Battle Royal would certainly shake up the series a bit, huh?" Nancy snickers and jots down a few more notes. "It's truly an interesting form of battle. What got you interested in it?"

The interviewee leans back and brushes his goatee with a thoughtful hum.

"That's a good question. Guess I'm just a huge fan of watching trainers and their Pokémon choose the strongest moves together in the heat of the moment — when it really counts." He leans forward again and rests his elbows on his knees. "Four people are always on the fire during a Battle Royal, so seeing them all break out their best moves is really exhilarating, woo!"

Nancy smirks mischievously and leans forward to match him.

"If that's the case, I have to ask: Were you not choosing your best moves today? It seems strange that Battle Royal's biggest name would get zero points on an international stage."

With a boisterous (and clearly overcompensating) laugh, The Masked Royal rubs the back of his neck.

"Of course not, I just went easy on my opponents! It would have been cruel to wipe the floor with my new friends on their home turf, during their first Battle Royal. This way it will be all the easier to start a new franchise here in Unova."

"Seriously?" Nancy straightens out, looking skeptical.

"Oh yeah!" He flashes another thumbs up with a steadfast conviction.

"If you say so…" Nancy mutters under her breath, clearly holding back a laugh.

She turns toward the camera and folds her hands in her lap.

"We'll be back with more of this exclusive interview after a quick commercial break. Then later we'll be starting the first round of our first tournament bracket. The trainers have been seeded, so now is your chance to pick a favorite!"

Nancy smiles and waves for the camera, joined by The Masked Royal. As the crowd cheers, the PWT logo comes on screen through a rotating graphic. It expands to cover everything, showing some text with ambient music before the commercials.

* * *

**_First Bracket_ — Round One**

Battle 1:

Tate vs. Grant

Battle 2:

Flannery vs. Lana

Battle 3:

Skyla vs. Marlon

Battle 4:

Candice vs. Jasmine


	7. Tate v Grant

Sydney, the PWT's television live event producer, steps up next to the camera in the commentator's skybox and starts to cue the coming end of their commercial break. She counts down from five on her fingers before stepping back and brushing off her suit to let the talent do their job.

"Welcome back to the fourth annual Pokémon World Tournament, live from Driftveil City," the Kalos Region's Champion begins. "For those of you who are just tuning in, I'm Diantha. I'm here with Nancy and Lisia to kick off the first bracket of our Gym Leader tournaments."

"We just wanted to clarify a few rules before the action begins." Lisia clears her throat and picks up the small pile of papers in front of her. "Like the Battle Royal we started this weekend off on, every trainer is going to have three Pokémon."

"Unlike the Royal however, these battles will be one-on-one. Last trainer with a Pokémon standing wins." Diantha says.

"This will be a single-elimination tournament," Nancy adds while twirling her drill ponytail. "Anyone who makes it to the semi-finals and finals does not need to use the same team as they brought to their first match."

"Oh! And before anyone gets too excited, there will be no in-battle items, Mega Evolutions, Z-Moves, Dynamaxes or Legendary Pokémon allowed." Lisia seems to run her finger down a list while talking before she looks over at the others.

"That is — until we get to the Champion's Tournament," Nancy adds with a nod. "Besides Legendaries, there are no holds barred there."

That seems to be all as the three commentators go silent for a moment and look around at each other.

"Très bien, mesdames." Diantha smiles and claps her hands together. "Shall we get to the excitement then?"

* * *

**"First out the gate this year, we have one half of the terrifying twins from my home Region of Hoenn."** Lisia announces. **"Mossdeep City has the only Pokémon Gym in the world with two leaders because of their inseparable mystic connection."**

"… **But that said, it would be unfair to have only one side use multiple Pokémon at once,"** Nancy says with a shrug. **"So Tate is here to represent Mossdeep's Psychic-type Gym in today's match!"**

From the red door at the left side of the room come two nearly identical youngsters in ocean-blue outfits, plain blue shoes and large hair buns on the backs of their heads held together by wing-shaped pins.

Tate walks a few steps in front of his sister with a stern look. His outfit had star-shaped green buttons, and he held his arms behind his back.

Liza waved to the audience with a much happier smile as they walked down the pathway to the arena. Her outfit boasted red buttons, and she had bushy ponytails that fell in front of her ears to give her face a slightly different frame.

She stays at the bottom of the stairs at the end of the walkway while Tate ascends into the now cage-less arena.

"**Taking on Tate is my personal exercise guru and good friend,"** Diantha announces next. **"All the way from Cyllage City's Rock-type Gym in West Kalos, it's Grant!"**

A much taller and somewhat lanky man saunters out of the blue door on the right with his hands on his hips and as focused a gaze as Tate. A red carabiner bounces against his chest from a string around his neck, jingling like the rock climbing harness bridging the space between his black shirt and grey pants.

He skips up the stairs to stand across from the young twin and looks between him and his sister. His eyes close as he pulls each sleeve closer to his hands.

"So what's the deal, do I have to fight both of you?" He asks with a scoff. "That seems like an insurmountable wall even for me."

"Liza and I do everything together…" Tate says as though in a trance.

"Including battles." His sister chimes in from the bottom of the stairs with a higher-pitched, but similar sounding voice.

"But today your opponent will just be…"

"Tate. I'm simply here…"

"For moral support."

The twin's statements come so soon after one another that they were clearly finishing each other's sentences.

Grant smirks as he looks between them once more, settling his grey eyes on Tate.

"Right."

"**Leaders, are you ready to begin?"**

Grant, Tate and Liza all look up toward the skybox at Nancy's question.

Grant gives a thumbs up while pulling a Pokéball out of the pouch attached to his climbing rig. His opponent takes a flashier approach, letting a Pokéball levitate out of his pocket and float above an open hand.

"**Alright, let's kick things off then!"**

Numbers start to flash on-screen again. Parts of the audience read along.

3…

2…

1…

Go!

As the trainers throw out their Pokémon, Roxie's band begins to play. The song is low-key and mostly characterized by a thumping drumbeat; a slow start characteristic of the music heard in Kalos' Gyms.

The song scores a seemingly one-sided encounter. Tate's orange sun-shaped Solrock had a blank expression trained on the draconic Tyrantrum that was over twice its size. Grant's maned dinosaur roars with such force that the lights above the arena sway.

"Alright Tyrantrum, let's finish this quick with a Crunch."

The Rock-type Gym Leader nods as his Pokémon rushes forward, shaking the ground with each step.

"**Crunch would be a devastating blow on Tate's Solrock,"** Diantha muses. **"Especially with Tyrantrum's Strong Jaw giving it a torrential boost in power."**

"**But Tate doesn't seem at all concerned!"**

And he didn't, given the way the boy stood back with his eyes closed.

Yet Solrock seems to be following some kind of battle plan. It levitates high enough in the air that Tyrantrum's attack misses, leaving the dinosaur's jaw skidding against the floor. Then the rocky body starts rotating like an ornament and glistening with purple and pink stars.

"Just going to leave me in the dark this whole match by saying nothing?" Grant asks with crossed arms.

"We can communicate telepathically…" Liza starts.

"With each other and our Pokémon."

"Why would we not…"

"If doing otherwise would give away…"

"All of our best strategies?"

Cyllage City's Gym Leader runs a hand through his jagged pompadour.

"I swear you two are worse than Olympia," he mumbles before adjusting the three colored gems in his hair back into place. "Common courtesy, perhaps?"

Liza and Tate look at each other and shrug in unison before the sister continues.

"If you must know…"

"Solrock's Cosmic Power raises all of its defensive capabilities…"

"And your fossil does not reach high enough to stop it from doing so."

Grant snarls and clutches a hand around his carabiner to tug on the string.

"He doesn't have to. Tyrantrum, use Flamethrower!"

The red-orange dinosaur folds its upper body inward before rearing back and roaring as scarlet flames fly from its maw in an arcing pattern. The flames rise high in the air and pass over the floating sunstone. Solrock barely budgets, and starts to spin with lights that dispel any residual smoke thanks to another unspoken command.

"**Fire-type attacks won't do much against a Rock-type like Solrock,"** Lisia remarks. **"You'd think Grant of all trainers would know that."**

"**Chip damage is better than nothing in this kind of situation."** Diantha responds.

"This is ridiculous. Tyrantrum, try to knock this nuisance out of the sky with a Rock Slide."

Grant's Pokémon takes a few steps back now and brushes its right foot against the floor a few times. Then it starts to stomp that foot as rocks appear above Solrock. They fall and knock the levitating monster down in jerky increments.

However outward damage from the attack is minimal, and Solrock begins to use Cosmic Power again. This time its lowest spike grinds against the arena floor as it spins like a top.

"Now use Crunch before it can float out of the way!"

Tyrantrum steams ahead with earth-shaking stomps, baring sharp teeth. But Tate simply smiles.

"Solrock. Stored Power."

His Pokémon lifts just off the ground and emanates a bright pink aura. After letting out a metallic cry, Solrock's aura explodes out in a flash of pink light that quickly fades to show a large beam of pink energy firing from its orange core. The beam is powerful enough to completely hold Tyrantrum at bay and leave it squealing as it gets pushed back, claws scarring the floor.

As Stored Power is released, Roxie kicks off the songs main guitar riff. It warbles out with a victorious chime through a synthetic filter in her amp.

"**Whoa! What is that attack?"** Lisia asks as she leans over the table with both hands to get a better look.

"**Stored Power gets stronger the more a Pokémon has raised its offensive and defensive battle prowess,"** Diantha remarks with her finger raised like a schoolteacher. **"Given Tyrantrum's meager special defense…"**

As if on cue, the beam finishes with a large explosion of energy that sends Tyrantrum flying back, knocked out.

Grant returns his Pokémon to the sight of smug children. Tate chuckles.

"Never underestimate…"

"The power even our smallest friends can wield."

Their opponent runs another hand through his hair as he swaps out his Pokéball.

"This inseparable act is rocky at best. Did you go to prom like this too? Can't imagine your dates would be very happy."

The twins look at each other again. Liza giggles as Tate rolls his eyes.

"If our date can't handle both of us…"

"They can't handle either of us."

"Even then, we're always together. Though not everyone is ready for that."

Grant shakes his head.

"Gross."

He pulls his arm back and throws out the new Pokéball, releasing a large and imposing Tyranitar. The Godzilla-looking green monster was slightly shorter than Tyrantrum, but roars with as much gusto.

"**Tyranitar is a smart choice,"** Nancy says. **"It's half Dark-type, so Stored Power will have no effect."**

"My thoughts exactly," Grant says while cracking his knuckles. "Tyranitar, hit them with a Dark Pulse."

Tyranitar opens its mouth wide and an atom-shaped cloud of black energy gathers inside it. Once its head cocks back, the energy shoots out in waves that wash over Solrock. As it passes, Solrock is left jittering in mid-air.

"We still have our heightened defenses…" Tate says.

"So don't count us out yet!"

"Solrock, use Stone Edge."

Tate throws his arm out with the command. His Pokémon starts to gyrate along an axis that made its yellow spikes whirr like a propeller.

As it flies forward, Grant tells Tyranitar to catch the spinning disk — which it does. The rock-on-rock grinding sound causes much of the audience to cover their ears.

"Use Payback!"

The green monster lifts Solrock high above its head before slamming it into the ground, stopping the momentum of its spin. Then it lifts a leg and stomps down hard.

"**Ouch, that's a super effective blow."**

Tate returns his fainted Pokémon with a sigh. His second Pokéball floats up beside the first and unleashes the gelatinous form of a pale green Reuniclus. Several structures within the gel form the shape of a baby with detached arms and cat ears.

"Our Reuniclus…"

"Will not fail…"

"With a powerful Focus Blast!"

The Psychic-type Pokémon pulls its arms together and a small shining ball of energy begins to coalesce.

"No way I'm letting you get away with that! Tyranitar, use Dark Pulse before they can get a shot off."

Grant's Pokémon charges another wave of dark energy. By the time it's ready to fire, so too is Reuniclus' Focus Blast.

The two attacks meet in the center of the arena and push against one another. The shimmering light of the ball is engulfed by the cloud of darkness, which itself begins to pass toward the gelatinous Pokémon more slowly.

Each hit their target on the other side, weakened by the exchange. Tyranitar only stumbles back slightly while Reuniclus falls to the floor and deforms before pulling itself together.

Tate and Grant squint toward each other as their monsters recover, trying to guess what mind games the other would try to play.

"Reuniclus, use Recover."

Green lights start to flutter around the Psychic-type as Diantha's voice rings out.

"**This could be a dangerous game for Grant. Tyranitar may pack a punch, but Reuniclus is beefy and has more options to keep its health up."**

"She's right…" Grant responds under his breath while pulling at the carabiner around his neck. "In that case we should keep up the pressure. Use Crunch!"

Tyranitar roars and starts to rush forward, shaking the arena much like Tyrantrum before it. As Reuniclus continues to absorb green light, the Rock-type has full freedom to take advantage of the situation. It sinks its teeth into the embryonic body and splits it in half by pulling away the monster's head and right arm.

The body and left arm on the ground act independently thanks to an unspoken order. It aims all three fingers on that free hand toward Tyranitar's blue-plated stomach. A lime green beam fires from its fingers with a high-pitched whine.

When the attack hits the beast's stomach, it doubles over slightly and coughs up the second half of Reuniclus. Tyranitar wheezes for a moment, giving the two halves of its opponent time to roll toward each other as amorphous blobs.

"**Signal Beam is an interesting choice,"** Nancy remarks as she looks over at her co-hosts. **"Does anyone understand why bug moves are strong against Dark-types?"**

"**Maybe bugs just look more creepy at night?"** Lisia shrugs.

"**Professor Kukui from Alola studies Pokémon moves and had an interesting theory on that subject,"** Diantha says, drawing the attention of the others.

"**Do tell!"**

"**He believes most Dark-type Pokémon thrive on keeping up an imposing, aggressive demeanor that breaks in the presence of creepy-crawlies."**

"**Seems a little subjective to be an official scientific finding, doesn't it?"** Nancy asks while cupping a hand on her cheek.

"**Nobody said Kukui was very scientific."** Diantha chuckles.

Their chatting is interrupted by a loud crash that shakes the stadium. Back on stage, Tyranitar has one foot where part of Reuniclus' body should be. Chunks of gelatin were scattered across the stage, but not pulling back together like before.

"**Wow, Tyranitar truly is a terror to behold!"** Lisia announces, accompanied by Grant's Pokémon bellowing at the ceiling. **"How will Tate be able to come back?**

Tate's Pokéball opens and pulls each piece of Reuniclus in at once.

"That was not…"

"Very nice, Grant."

"Well I'm not here to play nice," Grant responds with his arms crossed. "I'm here to win."

Both Tate and Liza smirk as a third Pokéball floats into the air above Tate's head. The three form an upside down triangle.

"Good thing I'm not either."

His ball releases a red line of energy that forms into the shape of a Gallade. The stoic, humanoid Pokémon lets out a cry that sounds like an unsheathing sword and thrusts its left arm in front of its face. Its green, blade-like protruding elbow shines in the light.

Grant's smile immediately fades.

"**Oh!"** Diantha swoons seeing his final Pokémon hit the field. **"Anyone who uses a member of the Ralts family is a trainer after my own heart."**

"Gallade, use Close Combat."

Tate's orders are immediately followed. Gallade dashes across the arena and leaps in front of Tyranitar. It delivers rapid-fire punch after punch to the pseudo-legendary's armored core that send it skidding across the floor. Then Gallade finishes the barrage with a hefty uppercut that sends all 450 pounds of the monster airborne. It lands hard on its back, fainted. The stadium shakes as the crowd cheers.

"**Between Reuniclus' attacks and that solid hit, even Tyranitar couldn't keep up,"** Nancy remarks with a scoff.

"**Saving Gallade for last was a smart move,"** Diantha adds.

Grant returns his Pokémon and fumbles to get out his third.

As soon as the majestic blue sauropod hits the stage with an ethereal call that starts the yellow sails on its neck flowing, it was clear the match would be over soon.

"**Ooh, Aurorus is especially weak to Fighting-type attacks like Tyranitar was,"** Diantha says.

Tate doesn't have to give the order out loud for his Pokémon to start running across the stage again. Grant's slow quadruped has no chance to respond before being beaten by Close Combat, falling over to a one-hit-knock-out.

Gallade lands on the ground before its fainted opponent and runs one arm over the green fold hanging over its face as though wiping away sweat.

"**And that's it!"** Lisia announces, bringing an end to the backing track. **"Mossdeep City's Tate turned the tables and secured a victory! We'll see him and his sister again for the semi-finals."**

Grant returns his Pokémon with a sigh and puts the Pokéball away again. He looks up to see Tate's Pokéballs floating away as the boy politely bows.

"It was a pleasure to battle you."

The gesture makes Grant's somber expression crack into a smile as he pulls his climbing gear up.

"Yeah, good fight." He turns around and looks back over his shoulder before walking away.

"Try not to take my loss in vain."


	8. Flannery v Lana

"**Once again, Hoenn is sending its best to the battlefield,"** Lisia announces to quiet an impatient crowd as the second battle of the first tournament approached.

"**From the red corner, straight out of Lavaridge, we have a trainer with a truly fiery passion for battles. It's my personal friend: Flannery!"**

Flannery spends a few extra seconds outside the arena even after her door opens, hopping from foot to foot and shaking her hands. Then she takes a deep breath before strutting out into the limelight.

The Fire-type Gym Leader is met with a healthy increase in cheers from the audience — likely a mix of admirers for her strength and for her spunky looks. However, she tries hard not to let the attention get to her head. Flannery keeps as serious an expression as possible while hopping up the stairs onto the main stage. She takes her place and puffs out her chest while both hands rest under her short-tied black shirt.

"**Flannery has a bit of an uphill battle — or shall I say, an upstream battle — against this kind, young Trial Captain from the Alola Region."**

Diantha looks a little too proud as she glances toward her co-commentators for affirmation. The audience could see Nancy and Lisia give her unimpressed looks as they were projected on the large screen behind the stage.

"**Yes… Well, let's give a warm welcome to our friend from the islands. It's Lana!"**

A more demure, blue-haired girl walks out of the blue door. She carried a handcrafted bamboo fishing pole in her right hand while her left pulled up the wave-patterned baggy pants she wore over her one-piece wetsuit.

As she gets to the stage, Lana looks out toward the cheering crowd and half-heartedly waves. A number of other Trial Captains stand and hold up signs.

"_Catch them hook, line, and sinker!"_

"_Don't be Wishiwashi"_

"_Strapping swimmers 4 Lana"_

Flannery notices the fanfare and chuckles, shaking her head as she looks down at the much shorter girl.

"I see you brought friends. They'll be real disappointed to watch you lose."

Lana meets the provocation with a slight smile.

"Heh heh… Awfully cocky for someone at a disadvantage, aren't you Flannery?"

"My Pokémon have trained in the Lavaridge hot springs to mitigate their Water-type weaknesses, and I pulled some old tricks from my grandfather," Flannery brings her hands up to pull back her tied red hair. "There's no way I'll lose!"

"Oh?" Lana looks curious at this, rubbing her chin. "That's interesting. I trained my Pokémon in battle against the legendary Heatran for just such an occasion. We can harden even its magma body."

Flannery's more confident façade fades as she hears that.

"Wow… Seriously?"

Lana looks off to the side and covers her mouth to stifle a giggle.

"Well, what do you think?"

The commentators cut off their banter with a transition, and soon enough the display screen starts to count down.

3…

2…

1…

Go!

Roxie's band immediately picks up the energy with Hoenn's traditional Gym battle theme. A few extra musicians with trumpets add roaring, triumphant flavors to a primarily simple drumming beat.

Both Flannery and Lana throw out their signature Pokémon leads. A smoke-billowing tortoise with glowing cracks in its black shell against a remarkably tiny sardine that appeared to be on the verge of tears.

Before the trainers give any commands, the battlefield is already alive with activity.

Lana's Wishiwashi starts to flash its eyes, leading to hundreds of similar fish appearing and joining together. Their school begins to resemble a massive dark blue shark with the lighting patterns of a bolted submarine.

As the fish Pokémon assumes its school form, Flannery's Torkoal whistles like a train while a larger cloud of smoke pumps out of its nostrils. The whistle seems to call in ethereal bright lights from the ceiling. It was as though the arena had its own sun shining under the roofing.

"**Right off the bat we see Torkoal's Drought trying to fix the power imbalance of this matchup,"** Diantha says. **"The sun will weaken Wishiwashi's Water-type attacks a long as it continues to shine."**

"**And if I'm not mistaken, Flannery can use that advantage to turn the tide if she weakens Wishiwashi back out of its School Form, right?" **Nancy asks.

"**Absolutely right."**

"Well we don't only have Water Guns to rely on you know," Lana calls while bumping the bottom of her fishing pole against the floor. "Wishiwashi, use Double-Edge!"

A gurgling roar washes over the room as her Pokémon rears back. The illusion of it being a single monster is somewhat broken as every fish in the school moves at a different speed and leaves gaps in an apparent armor coating, but that doesn't make the mass any less intimidating when it starts to swim toward the tortoise.

"Big mistake, puny girl!" Flannery responds in a tone trying way too hard to sound gruff. "Torkoal, return!"

The Pokémon returns to its ball as a digital red line. Its replacement is Chandelure, a Victorian chandelier with sentient yellow eyes and ghastly purple flames.

Chandelure's entire figure turns slightly transparent, and Wishiwashi charges straight through it. On the other side, every fish coalesces together and separate to create the same shark formation facing the arena again.

"**Lucky Flannery had a Ghost-type in the wings,"** Nancy says. **"That made Lana's Normal-type attack completely ineffectual."**

The redhead grins and jabs her right arm like a boxer.

"Alright Chandelure, use Energy Ball!"

Her Pokémon's eyes glint as green blobs of energy gather into an orb in front of its rounded head — the center of the chandelier.

The orb is launched at Wishiwashi with a low wail. It scrapes along the left side of the shark's body, which sends a spattering of fish falling to the ground with lifeless glubs. A sizable gap is left in the attack's wake that soon fills up as fish are redirected from one side to the other.

This leaves the figure complete, but smaller than before.

"You're not going to take us down that easily," Lana remarks while pulling her sleeveless white shirt down over her suit more. "Use Waterfall!"

The school of Wishiwashi mimics gnashing its teeth before charging at Chandelure. This time a wall of frothing water shields its front.

The elemental covering prevents Flannery's Pokémon from disappearing again, and it gets pushed back by Wishiwashi's immense force. Each of its flames extinguish as the school crashes their opponent into a wall.

"**That's a solid super effective hit from Lana!"** Lisia's voice rings out as the angler rejoices seeing Flannery return her fainted Pokémon.

"**Even weakened by Energy Ball, it's hard not to appreciate Wishiwashi's overwhelming strength,"** Diantha adds. **"There's a reason it's said to be the one true natural predator of Gyarados."**

"Alright, so your sea demon had a good attack. But Chandelure is a bit of a glass cannon anyway." Flannery huffs and kicks her toe against the floor a few times. "Let's see how it deals with this!"

She sends out Magmortar, whose flame-patterned egg body and vaguely duck billed face was often ridiculed by a large portion of the Pokémon world.

However nobody could deny how much power the Fire-type packed in its twin arm cannons. Flannery seemed to be banking on that power, her confidence palpable in a large grin.

"Magmortar, use Thunderbolt!"

Both its arms are raised high in the air, and ropes of arcing electricity fire toward the ceiling. The stadium lights start to flicker off and on as they cackle with extra power, leaving Torkoal's sun to provide most of the room's lighting.

As Magmortar brings its arms together, the bolts of electricity start to rain down upon Wishiwashi. Huge portions of the school start to die off, and by the end of the attack everyone else had scattered.

Only Lana's original Wishiwashi remained.

"**Once Wishiwashi falls below a certain amount of health, it reverts back to a weaker solo form,"** Diantha tells her curious co-commentators. **"I'm surprised it didn't outright faint from that Thunderbolt, but Lana won't get much more mileage out of her Pokémon."**

Flannery lets out a hearty belly laugh, and then tightens the towel she was using as a belt.

"That scrawny shrimp will make a nice stir fry. Magmortar, use Thunderbolt!"

The Water-type Trial Captain shakes her head and holds the fishing rod tight.

"Not so fast. Wishiwashi, return!" She returns the tiny fish into its capsule and trades it off for another. "Go, Lanturn!"

As the cartoonish anglerfish comes onto the battlefield, all of Magmortar's electricity draws into the twin light bulbs on its forehead. The bulbs glow brighter and seem to spread energy throughout Lanturn's body.

Lana smiles and pumps her free hand.

"Your Electric-type attacks are nothing against Lanturn's Volt Absorb," she remarks with a bit of a giddy chuckle. "My little guy once ate enough energy that the Kanto Power Plant had to shut down for a day!"

"What?"

Flannery leans back and runs a hand through her hair, looking confused.

"You can't be serious." She looks up at the commentator's skybox, as if seeking confirmation.

The three commentators simply look between one another until Nancy shrugs.

"**I'm not sure we can confirm one way or the other,"** she admits while looking through some papers scrawled with statistics.

During the immediate pause thereafter, a voice calls out from the audience.

"It's true, I was there!"

All three commentators lean over the table and try to look over the crowd as that group of sign-holding trainers cheers around the speaker.

"**And that would be a note from Sun, Alola's Pokémon League Champion," **Diantha says. **"I think we can take that as a proper confirmation."**

The audience roars to life as Lana waves to her friends.

Flannery growls in frustration, trying to turn her serious demeanor back on.

"Enough of this silliness! Magmortar, use Solar Beam."

While Torkoal's sunlight was starting to fade, it was still strong enough for Flannery's Pokémon to take advantage of the ambient energy. It aims its right cannon toward Lanturn, the other arm keeping its weapon steady like a spacefaring bounty hunter.

A ball of green energy coalesces around the tip of the cannon, which quickly bursts into a wide ray of light that immerses Lanturn. Lana has to duck out of the way with a yelp to avoid being hit.

When the light beam fades, Lanturn is faltering toward the ground, but manages to swim back into the air comfortably.

"**Solar Beam doesn't need an extra turn to charge when there's harsh sunlight,"** Diantha remarks. **"It's a smart move to have for a Water-type matchup. But Lanturn is a remarkably bulky beast."**

"And now I've lured you right where I want you." Lana gives a bowing nod, and then swings her fishing pole out like a sword. "Lanturn, use Brine!"

Her Pokémon launches a ball of frothy seawater through the air, which catches the last sparking rays of sunlight as Lisia speaks up again.

"**Brine gets a huge power boost when its user has a lot of damage. Isn't it inspiring to see a Pokémon use all its fading power in a beautiful display!"**

The arcing attack nails Magmortar in the face, causing it to fall back on its behind while coughing up water. Flannery looks exasperated as she flails her arms to catch her partner's attention.

"Come on bud, get up! You need to use another Solar Beam before the sunlight fades!"

Magmortar does eventually get to its feet and aims a shot at Lanturn's goofy manatee figure. But it was too late, and the fiery monster has to waste extra time charging up the energy this time.

"Aww no!" Flannery cries with both hands clutching her hair.

Lana simply smiles in return.

"Alright Lanturn, hit them with a second Brine."

The Water-type's attack hits its target before Solar Beam can charge, and knocks Magmortar out.

"**Ohh, and like we expected this appears to be a tough spot for Lavaridge's Gym Leader,"** Nancy says.

"**It's three-to-one. A good first showing for Alola,"** Diantha continues. **"Unless Flannery pulls through with her signature Torkoal, of course."**

While they were talking, Torkoal had taken the stage and brought back harsh sunlight.

"Let's give ourselves some cover, Torkoal. Use Smokescreen!"

Her tortoise takes a deep breath and whistles like a train again. Dark grey smoke billows out of its nose and shell, obscuring the entire red side of the arena.

Lana rubs her chin thoughtfully, looking around at different angles.

"Umm… Okay, Lanturn. Try hitting her with a Hydro Pump."

Lanturn calls out and leans back, its lamp anglers glowing bright. Then it fires a pressurized beam of water out of its mouth. The attack cuts a sharp hole through the smoke, but misses its intended target.

Flannery laughs and pumps both fists.

"Return fire with a Solar Beam!"

Torkoal's cry rings out from somewhere in the smoke covering, followed shortly by a beam of green light piercing through the darkness. It directly nails Lanturn, and after the light fades away its anglerfish target is no longer swimming.

As Lana returns her fainted Pokémon, the Smokescreen mostly fades thanks to the energy of the two beams passing through it.

"Alright, this is it. Go Araquanid!"

Lana's last Pokémon is an all-around terrifying beast: A six-foot black and lime green spider with a jiggling bubble of water around its head. Its hissing sounds are muffled by the aquatic coating.

"Gah!" Flannery leans away with an arm in front of her body. This is obviously her first time seeing the Alolan monster.

"What's wrong? He's a total sweetheart!" Lana giggles while holding her hands over her heart. "And he'll totally destroy you with a Liquidation."

Araquanid hisses and starts to rush toward Torkoal with six clattering legs.

"It's an abomination," Flannery rebuts while rapidly shaking her head. "Kill it with fire, Torkoal!"

Torkoal follows through with a Flamethrower that completely obscures its opponent's path. However, Araquanid's watery shielding allows it to charge straight through the flames and bash Flannery's monster, sending it tumbling backward.

"**This isn't looking so good for Flannery,"** Diantha says. **"If you're not used to Araquanid, you wouldn't know that its Water Bubble ability halves all Fire-type damage while strengthening its own Water-type attacks."**

"What?!" Flannery looks up at the skybox, shocked.

"Well… Uhh… Use Solar Beam then, Torkoal!"

The beam is let out immediately thanks to persisting harsh sunlight, but Araquanid's half-Bug status prevents it from taking super effective damage.

It tanks the hit well enough to immediately follow-through with a second Liquidation. The hit is impactful enough to send Torkoal flying off the stage, where it skids through a gasping sect of the audience on its shell and scatters puffs of smoke.

"Torkoal!" Flannery runs to the edge of the stage and drops to her knees so she can seek it out.

As she returns the fainted Pokémon, Roxie's band cuts the music.

"Looks like we have a winner folks. Let's give a big round of applause for Lana!"

One of the trumpeters tries to play victory fanfare.

Roxie elbows him and scowls, but the audience bursts into cheers and applause for a demurely bowing Lana on stage.

"Thank you, thank you…" She has a bit of a goofy smile thanks to all the sudden recognition.

Flannery approaches with a scowl, which leaves Lana looking up with wide eyes. But the aggressive glare quickly changes into a bright smile as Flannery holds out her hand.

"Nice battle, eh?"

When Lana catches up she nods and shakes Flannery's hand.

"Definitely! You're quite the catch, Flannery."

"Next time you're in Hoenn let me know, I bet we could grill up some nice seafood together."

They laugh and head off the stage together.


	9. Skyla v Marlon

"Now Skyla, remember to bump your leg up at least 50 degrees when you pose."

The redhead kept her head ducked down as Elesa stood beside her, fussing with the light blue propeller-shaped accessory keeping a bun protruding out of Skyla's long hair.

"Do that and you will draw at least 34 percent more engagement from the audience."

"El."

"We had Ampère pull that on the red carpet for last spring's Flowering Flabébé collection. People _love_ the vaguely infantilized look. Makes them feel like they can look younger if they wore the outfit."

Skyla blinks a few times and pulls her head away. "Pardon?"

Elesa keeps her hands in the air a moment longer, mentally rewinding the conversation. Her face starts to run red and she pulls her hands back to adjust her fluffy Mareep coat.

"I… I did not…" She clears her throat and looks at the floor. "I didn't mean to imply you looked like a baby."

The redhead holds back a snort.

"All I meant to say is that she looked cute. And you look cute."

"El…"

"Especially when you pop your leg up 50 degrees. Pantomime an airplane."

Skyla rests her hands on the other girl's shoulders. "Elesa."

Elesa looks up again, and their eyes meet. Skyla's sunny smile is immediately infectious, drawing the corners of the model's lips up.

"I appreciate your help, but this isn't my first rodeo! I'm pretty sure I know how to appeal to this crowd after four years."

"Yes, I suppose you do." Elesa says as she brushes a strand of hair out of Skyla's face. "You've always had a certain special spark in the spotlight."

"Hee-hee! Well I did learn from the best."

She lightly grasps one of Elesa's long diamond-patterned braids and tugs the pale girl down for a quick, chaste kiss.

Before they can get too involved however, a producer asks Skyla to get ready for her impending match from a number of speakers hanging throughout the backstage hallway. Elesa sighs reluctantly as their embrace shifts to let the girls rest their foreheads together.

"Guess it's time to go," Skyla mumbles.

"Yep. I'll miss you, but someone has to go show that floundering Feebas who's boss."

"Don't worry El, you won't have enough time to start missing me." She grins and pulls away to start heading toward the arena's entrance. "I'll be soaring above the competition before you know it!"

"You better." Elesa says while standing back, hands keeping her fluffy coat closed as she taps the red ballet flat on her left foot. "If you win this whole thing, I got a surprise programmed into the electronics."

"Ohh!"

Skyla whirls around eagerly, clapping as she bounces on her soles.

"You sure know how to pump a girl up! Now I'll give this 120 percent!"

Elesa giggles and waves as Skyla runs off with fuzzy-tipped blue boots clopping against the tiled floor.

* * *

As the Flying-type Gym Leader reaches the closed door to the arena, a nearby hanging flat screen television shows Nancy start to give an introduction to the battle.

"**Coming up is a grudge match born right here in Unova,"** the pink-haired starlet begins. **"Sea versus air. Plane versus boat. A down-to-Earth surfer versus a highflying girl."**

"**On the red side we have a Flying-type expert, and the bubbliest pilot this side of Petalburg City,"** Lisia continues. **"Let's hear it for Skyla!"**

The redhead runs out as soon as her doors slide open, crossing the pathway to the stage with a zigzagging path and her arms stretched out like an airplane's wings. Once she makes it to the top of the stairs, she poses with her arms out and a leg propped in the air. Her airy blue outfit — a light blue two-piece with short-shorts and long sleeves stretching into bulky gloves — was on full display.

"**And on the blue side, we have a relative newcomer to the Unovan Pokémon League,"** Nancy starts once the audience relaxes. **"Introducing the man with a Mantine's heart, and winner of Humilau City's diving contest three-years running. It's Marlon!"**

As the blue door opens, a very tanned man with dark blue hair runs out with nearly as much energy as Skyla. He reaches the top of the stairs and leaps into the air, skidding into place on a pair of worn sandals.

"Sup yo! Who's ready for a wicked match?" He straightens out with a laid-back grin and finger-guns at the crowd, trying to talk over their cheers. "Sit back and let my girl Sky and I serve up exactly what you're waitin' for, 'K?"

Skyla laughs at Marlon's enthusiasm and brings her arms into a defensive boxer's stance.

"You always make a big splash Marlon! All the easier for my birds to swoop in and gobble you up."

"Damn, thems fightin' words Sky."

The Water-type trainer grins back as he pulls up the skin-tight, blue-and-white stripped swimsuit on his lower body. He manages to cover the obscene V-shaped tan line around his waist, but that pale skin could still be seen through his exposed feet.

"**Clearly we should let our competitors take over," **Diantha chuckles. **"They've got all the energy to spare."**

"**Well let's not hold them back much longer then,"** Nancy agrees. **"This should be fun!"**

The large stadium screen counts down again:

3…

2…

1…

At the same time, Skyla and Marlon both shout, "Go!" Their Pokéballs fly high as Unova's official gym theme starts to play: A high energy song with plenty of digital sound effects adding into the reverberating flair of Roxie's plugged-in electric bass that carried a central focus.

The first match-up featured Skyla's happily bouncing Jumpluff, a small blue orb of a creature carrying balls of cotton; and Marlon's serious-looking Carracosta, a bipedal blue sea turtle with a hard, black rock shell.

"**And already the mind games are beginning in this battle of Unova's finest,"** Nancy announces.

Diantha picks up with a very specifically articulated teacher's tone.

"**It seems Marlon hoped for a quick win with his half Rock-type fossil Pokémon. But now Carracosta is a liability in the face of a half Grass-type like Jumpluff."**

"Clever 'mon to bring Sky. But that little guy takes hits like a sheet of wet paper," Marlon chastises, though it comes across jovially.

"Maybe so, but that won't matter if I can knock you out first!" Skyla stretches both arms forward with a smile. "Jumpluff, use Bullet Seed!"

Jumpluff bounces a few more times before starting to launch a series of what look to be large, sharpened sunflower seeds toward Carracosta. Anticipating a quick hit, Marlon returns his turtle and replaces it with Starmie: A rotating purple starfish with a shining red gemstone at its center.

Three rounds of Bullet Seeds strike Starmie, the first two sending it stumbling back while the third knocks it onto its back. However, its light continues flashing.

"Carracosta might be slow, but Starmie can outpace the best of 'em," Marlon says as he pulls the blue goggles around his neck up to his eyes. "Use Ice Beam!"

Starmie's front five appendages start to spin faster, eventually lifting the Pokémon off the floor like a flying saucer. It keeps spinning to stay airborne while pointing the red gem toward Jumpluff.

"Don't let it get the best of you, Jumpluff. Use U-Turn!"

The blue puffball starts to float toward Starmie, going faster and faster as it pumps its cotton back repeatedly.

Just before they impact, Starmie's gem lets loose a thin, white cryogenic beam.

The attack cuts across Jumpluff's body with mechanical precision, sending it faltering back and falling to the ground with a cry. When it lands, it's clear to see Jumpluff struggling as half its figure was trapped in a jagged block of ice.

"**It appears Skyla's Pokémon was frozen solid in that super effective attack,"** Diantha announces. **"Which completely cancelled out the motion it needed for that U-Turn."**

"Killer luck, eh?" Marlon cracks his knuckles. "We'll ride this wave all the way to the shores of victory!"

"If luck is all you've got, your pool is looking a bit shallow."

Skyla lifts her right leg and pulls a Pokéball out of the dark blue holster strapped to it. She lets Marlon knock out Jumpluff with a second Ice Beam, that way she can send out a Drifblim without fear of it taking any damage.

The animate, purple hot air balloon starts to hover just below the mechanics and lights at the top of the stadium. One of its yellow arm flaps held a small red leaf.

"Don't worry Sky, we've got strats to back our luck. Starmie, use Recover!" Marlon's now-grounded Pokémon starts absorbing green lights from the atmosphere.

"Hee-hee! Healing won't help you, Marlon. Not when we throw a Phantom Force your way!"

Skyla throws her arms out again, and Drifblim lets out a ghastly wail that sounds similar to a deflating balloon. It disappears into a swirling purple portal that appeared on the ceiling.

"With the added boost of our Power Herb, your starfish doesn't stand a chance!"

As another portal starts to form behind Starmie, Diantha adds a bit of commentary.

"**Power Herbs are pretty common in competitive settings. They energize a Pokémon enough to activate any two-turn attack right away."**

"**Sounds like something Flannery could have used during that Solar Beam exchange,"** Lisia says.

"**Indeed she could have!"**

By the time they'd finished, Drifblim struck Starmie hard from behind and sends it flying. The Water-type lands on its face, cracking the red gem.

"All right!" Skyla exclaims while triumphantly raising her arms.

Drifblim mimics her with all four of its yellow arm flaps.

"Yo, one hard-hitting spook deserves another." Marlon brushes back his blue hair. "Let's go, Jellicent!"

He meets her Ghost-type with a bulbous blue jellyfish. Puffy white frills gave Jellicent the appearance of having a regal crown and a mustache that stretched across its body.

"Too bad for you, ghosts are just as effective against other ghosts as they are against Psychic-types," Skyla says. "Use Shadow Ball!"

"No way! I was totally about to use Shadow Ball! Uncanny, Sky."

Both their Pokémon take a similar pose, growing orbs of black-and-purple energy between their tentacles and yellow arm flaps respectively.

When they launch the matching Shadow Balls at one another, their attacks meet above the center of the stage. As the orbs push against each other, both deform. The now elongated blobs' rotations slow until eventually they both burst into clouds of smoke and ethereal skull-shaped confetti. A shock wave emits from the blast that leaves the hot air balloon and jellyfish drifting away from one another.

"**Dazzling! Truly, dazzling."** Lisia claps at the exchange.

"Quick Drifblim, Phantom Force!"

As Skyla's Pokémon disappears into another portal, Marlon adjusts his goggles and looks to the ceiling.

"Let's set up a Rain Dance, Jellicent. Stormy weather for the gnarliest waves!"

He watches as Jellicent's echoing call seems to condense as clouds along the ceiling above the arena. The dark grey apparitions cackle briefly with the sound of thunder before heavy rain begins pouring down.

"Ah, man…" Skyla mumbles as she ducks her head under the sudden rainfall. Wet, red hair starts to mat down in front of her eyes. "Elesa spent so long on this."

"If ya want, I can let you slip off for an umbrella."

She shakes her head in response before clearing the hair from her face. "No way Marlon. Drifblim and I are keeping up the assault!"

Right on cue, another ghostly portal appears behind Jellicent. The Flying/Ghost-type soars out and crashes into Marlon's Pokémon. It drags the jellyfish clear across the arena in mid air, only stopping to let Jellicent ram into the wall on its own.

It takes Jellicent a moment to reacclimate itself and float back into the stormy weather. Each motion forward has a weak sway.

"Well we ain't going down so easy, K?" Marlon smirks and pulls at his bottoms again. "Use Scald!"

Jellicent flaps its long, petal-tipped tentacles to float backwards before launching a hydrant-sized spray of steaming hot water.

Skyla responds with a Shadow Ball, which again manages to catch the end of Jellicent's Scald. The attacks push against each other, but soon scalding water starts to scatter as Shadow Ball's spin cuts through the beam.

Drifblim's Ghost-type move splits the Scald in half like Robin Hood's arrow and picks up enough momentum to slam into the distracted jellyfish before exploding.

"**That's super effective!"** Lisia announces. **"And it looks like Jellicent is down for the count."**

Marlon returns his Pokémon, finally looking a little more serious — though it was hard to look that intimidating with his hair also wet and falling in his face. He brings back out Carracosta, and the ancient turtle waves its arms through the rain.

"**Will Marlon be able to bring this back?"**

"**If he plays his cards right, I believe he could."** Diantha taps her chin while looking between her co-commentators. **"Carracosta has a lot of heavy-hitting potential under that shell."**

"And we're about to give you some of it," Marlon adds onto the announcement while pantomiming the waggle of being on a surfboard. "Let's smash some shells, 'K?"

Carracosta nods and gets down on all fours. Its black shell starts to glow a hot white, and then shatters as the Pokémon abruptly arcs its back in the air. When it stands straight again, chunks of rock fall to the ground behind Carracosta, leaving it with half as much shell as before.

"**Shell Smash helps a Pokémon shed its extra weight and hit harder,"** Diantha remarks with her suspicions confirmed. **"If the rain can get Carracosta moving fast enough to kill, it might not have to worry about the hit to its defenses."**

As the focus shifts to Marlon's Pokémon, Skyla returns her hot air balloon and sends out Swanna. The fluffy, snow white swan perches on the wet arena floor and spreads its heart-shaped wingspan wide.

"Lucky for me, your rain is just as helpful for Swanna!" She comments while pumping both fists. "She can keep her down nice and healthy."

"Your healthy down won't mean anythin' when we rock you with a Smack Down!"

Carracosta's call echoes the sound of rumbling thunder in the clouds as it rushes forward, feet splashing as rain bounces off its rocky helmet.

"Not so fast Marlon, we'll counter with a Hurricane!"

Swanna starts to flap its wings, quickly to an intense degree. Wind starts to slow Carracosta's charge, and picks the turtle up off the ground just before it manages to bring both flippers down on Swanna's head. It gets caught uncontrollably flying around a small tornado that came from the storm clouds above.

"Thanks for the help, by the way. Hurricane never misses in the rain!"

Marlon huffs and starts to pull his goggles back down around his neck while watching Carracosta fly through the air.

"Man… Startin' to think I'm the one wiping out here."

When the Hurricane breaks, Carracosta plummets to the ground and lands flat on its shell. It slowly manages to get back to its feet, leaving behind more chunks of black rock. However it seems unsteady, at risk of falling back down.

"**Looks like Marlon's Pokémon is confused after that,"** Nancy says. **"This might be Skyla's shot."**

"Alright Swanna, let's finish this with a Scald of your own!"

Skyla punches both fists forward, and Swanna once again flaps its wings wide in response. The bird opens its beak and lets loose a torrent of steaming, hot water.

"Carracosta, break that wave with Rock Slide yeah?"

As the turtle claps its flippers together, rocks begin to appear in a line in mid-air.

Where Marlon expected a surf break to form from the falling stones in front of his Pokémon, it accidentally traps itself in its confusion. The wall forms behind Carracosta — giving the Pokémon something to fly back into when hit by Swanna's attack.

Scald continues to push Carracosta into the rock wall and burn its skin until the wall gives out. Marlon's monster tumbles through to the other side, sprawled out and fainted under the rain.

"**That's game!"** Nancy announces as the music fades out. **"Skyla wins, a whole two Pokémon ahead of the competition!"**

The redhead runs forward with a whooping cheer and hugs Swanna from its neck. The bird coos and rubs its fluffy head against its trainer lovingly.

Marlon shrugs and throws both arms behind his head with a laid back grin.

"Looks like I got swept away, fo' sho'." He looks out toward the cheering audience. "Least we left 'em with a big smile."

He heads over to Skyla with sandals flopping as the rain dissipates.

The two trainers shake hands and pass a few idle, sunny words before Marlon lifts the Flying-type Gym Leader's hand in the air.

"Y'all better cheer on my girl Sky 'til she takes that belt, yeah?"

Whoops and hollering ensues as the Unovan icons show off for a while longer, leading the commentators into a commercial break.

* * *

_**Figured I would give a brief shout out to Blazblade (ID: 8144344), whose kind words last week more or less encouraged the bout of Skyla and Elesa affection that became this chapter's cold open. Can't go wrong with a writer who likes them some crossovers!**_


	10. Plenty of Fish

Though the audience in the PWT arena had grown rancorous while janitors dried water off the stage between battles, much of their ambient noise was muffled for Sinnoh's Ice-type Gym Leader Candice.

She stood in the sterile, white backstage hall on the red side of the stadium. It was much warmer in Unova than her mountaintop home of Snowpoint City, so she kept her blue sweater tied around her waist while waiting for her upcoming battle against Jasmine.

A slender neon strip of light embedded in the floor directed her toward the combatant entrance just around the bend. However, standing between her and the place she needed to go was Blue: Former Indigo League Champion, current Kanto Gym Leader and all around pompous socialite.

His black aviator jacket and brown cargo pants were almost the polar opposite of Candice's white button-up, beige hotpants and cyan-striped knee high socks.

There was still time before Candice's match, and Professor Oak's progeny was clearly hoping to flirt through as much of it as possible.

"… But even though we trounced dozens of Hester Prynne rejects, Blastoise was still raring to go when we found Giovanni holed up the penthouse office."

"Really?"

"Oh yeah, you should have seen him in action." Blue flashes a cocky smirk and slips both hands in his pockets. He leans his right shoulder against the wall. "Hydro Cannons left and right, one-hit-knock-outs. Rhydon. Nidoking. Dugtrio. That mobster never stood a chance."

Candice giggles and twirls her right ponytail with an index finger.

"If it were just Candice, I would have had way more trouble working through a building as big as Sylph Co. on my own."

"Well it was hard of course, but that challenge was just what I needed to push my team to be their best."

"That's very admirable!"

Blue lets out an overly charismatic laugh and ducks his head toward the floor, running a hand through his spiky orange hair.

"All in a day's work for a super champ like me."

As Blue keeps talking, completely immersed in his life's story, Candice shifts her weight from foot to foot. Her attention drifts between him and the wall-mounted television screen nearby where Nancy, Lisia and Diantha were gearing up for her match.

Neither notices a third figure strutting toward them, even as his sneakers squeak against the pristine tile floor.

Only when the man stops behind a distracted Blue does Candice notice. Because he was at least half a head taller than Blue, it was easy for her to give the newcomer a once over. He had a much more casual demeanor in spite of his stern glare, featuring a pair of faded blue jeans, a short-sleeved baseball tee with the number "96" emblazoned on its chest and a matching red-and-white cap covering his messy black hair.

While Candice stares at the man over Blue's shoulder, waiting for him to say something, Blue's mile-a-minute story slows to a crawl.

"… What, is there something on my face?"

He pats a hand on both cheeks as a precaution, but Candice simply shakes her head in response.

"Well then what's the deal with this thousand-yard stare? I'm not boring you or anything, am— Aiyee!"

At that point Blue finally looked over his shoulder to find the man staring quietly back. He scrambles closer to Candice, as though protecting her.

She meets this gesture with a giggle and bends to the right so she can see around him.

"Red! Damn it man, we've talked about this. Make some noise if you're going to sneak around like a Gengar."

Red doesn't respond. His eyes narrow slightly, shooting daggers directly into Blue's forehead, and he crosses his arms over the "96" on his chest.

"What?"

Blue tries to discern a response before looking back at Candice. Her gives her an overdramatic shrug and lets out a few playful scoffs, then pointing his thumbs back at the reclusive Champion as though to sarcastically say 'this guy.'

"It doesn't seem like he's very happy with you, if you ask Candice."

"Not happy with me? Nu uh, Red and I go way back," Blue says as he steps away from Candice and throws an arm around the man's shoulder. "I even bought this very t-shirt for the big lug in Alola. Isn't that right buddy?"

He looks up at Red with a sharp-toothed grin that immediately fades as he finds a continually aggressive gaze following every movement. Blue clears his throat, then pulls his arm away to stick both hands in his pockets again.

"What? Is this about the Sylph Co. thing?"

When Red gives a slight nod, Blue clicks his tongue and looks off at the wall. Candice can't help but giggle at the exchange while tightening her sweaters' tied arms.

"Alright, maybe I had a little bit of help clearing Team Rocket out of Sylph Co."

He lets out a pained gasp as Red punches his arm.

"Okay! Fine, Red cleared out Sylph Co. I just kind of staked out a hallway and surprised him with a battle after he was exhausted from the trainer gauntlet," Blue huffs and looks back at Red with a scowl. "Happy now?"

Red smiles and gives a much more distinct, affirmative nod.

As Candice starts to laugh again, a speaker under the nearby television buzzes to life.

"**Miss Candice, your match will begin in two minutes. Please be ready to go."**

"Ah! That's my cue."

The Ice-type leader flips her right ponytail back behind her ear before starting to circle the pair of smiling boys. She stops briefly and rests a hand on Blue's shoulder.

"Very nice to meet you, Blue. Always a pleasure to break the ice without any sort of surprise battles."

She waves at Red, who gladly waves back, and makes her way around the corner.

Not long after she's out of sight, a rush of noise breaks into the hallway as the doors slide open to let Candice in. Then the Kantonian boys are on their own amongst muffled cheers as the doors close again.

"Dude. Seriously?" Blue lightly shoves Red's chest as he steps back. "You know how rare it is to find an Ice-type trainer who isn't cold, or like a billion years old?"

Red shrugs in response, and Blue scoffs.

"It's really hard! And I had that girl eating out of the palm of my hand before you showed up."

Red scratches the back of his neck and looks toward the ceiling.

"… She was bored."

Blue lets out a shrill laugh and leans in.

"Oh now you talk. That's what, three of your allotted 20 words for the week?"

He mutters some not-choice words about Red while looking at the television to see Candice and Jasmine square off on-stage.

"You could at least go back to not showering so I could smell you coming," Blue mumbles before turning his back to Red and starting to walk away. "Can't believe I saved you from drowning off that dock on Poni Island."

Before Blue can get too far away from the unmoving man in the baseball tee, another figure cuts him off by walking into the hall from an outcropping doorway. This new figure's eyes were glued to the floor and his hands were buried deep in the pockets of his brown trench coat.

"Excusez-Moi," the man remarks with a deep tone befitting the film noir he had dressed for. A slight accent similar to Diantha's cropped up when he spoke Kalosian phrases, but otherwise he could have fit well in the back alleys of Castelia City.

Blue clicks his tongue again and runs a hand through his orange hair.

"Yeah? What is it you want, old timer?"

As the man in the trench coat idly laughs at the comment, Red walks over and stands next to his rival.

"I don't know if I'm that old yet. My ears still work well enough to know that you two Champions have had dealings with Team Rocket in the past. Yes?"

He turns toward them and spreads the trench coat slightly, showing the maroon-colored suit underneath.

"Unless you're just willing to go quite far to hit on kindly Gym Leaders."

Blue rolls his eyes and looks at Red, giving him the same 'this guy' backhanded point that he had given Candice earlier.

"Yeah, we took on Giovanni's goons back in Kanto. What's it to ya'?"

The man pulls his hands out of his coat pockets, the right bringing out a badge. Not the Gym kind; the law enforcement kind.

"International Police. We've heard some chatter flaring up in light of the World Tournament, so I'm on the lookout for any suspicion-raising individuals."

As Blue and Red lean in to look at his credentials, the man gazes at a wall.

"You can call me Looker."

Red nods affirmatively to Blue, who straightens out with his arms crossed.

"Alright then, Looker. How exactly can we help you?"

"I just want to make sure you haven't seen anything out of the ordinary. A couple of former Champions with a passion for Nathaniel Hawthorne are about as trustworthy a source as I can think of."

The two look at each other and shrug.

"Nothin' really. Should we be looking out for anything in particular?"

Looker shakes his head and turns around.

"I'm sure you'd know trouble if you saw it. Seems every plotting group has a flair for the dramatic these days."

Blue nods up at Red. He returns the gesture.

"Look out for crazy costumes. Got it."

Looker is already sauntering away when Blue looks back, leading him to stutter out a surprised response.

"Wha— Hey! How are we supposed to get in touch with you if we see anything?"

"I'll be around," Looker responds with a carefree cackle. "Bonjour, gentlemen. Enjoy the tournament."

Blue looks less than impressed.

"Yeah, smell you later."


	11. Candice v Jasmine

**_Welcome to the first chapter of this fanfic published following the release of Pokémon Masters! For those of you whose technology allows, I hope you've been enjoying the mobile title as much as I have._**

**_The actual story from that game won't have any bearing on this story, but it follows a very similar philosophy of character interactions that I've been trying to instill. So I wanted to give it a high recommendation for anyone who is interested in that sort of thing — which I imagine you are given you're presumably a Pokémon fan sticking with this silly project of mine. _**

**_In fact, if you're want to play the game together (since I just unlocked co-op mode), feel free to private message me! I'd be down to make a few extra friends for battling._**

**_The more important reason I bring this up, however, is that seeing certain characters appear and discuss their backstories in Masters has gotten me to think about the next sect of characters I'll be featuring as we move toward the second tournament bracket. I led chapter 1 with a similar call to action, but I thought it would be appropriate to again offer anyone the chance to shoot me some ideas they'd like to see. Private messages are probably best if you want to have a back-and-forth discussion, but if you're more comfortable just leaving a general review feel free to do so._**

**_I have a few specifics worked out, but other spots are malleable._**

**_Anyway, that's all. Thanks for indulging this long preamble, and without further adieu..._**

* * *

Blue finally makes it to the audience stands well into Candice and Jasmine's battle. As he slides past a row of sitting spectators, Olivine City's shining Steelix rams its hard head into Candice's Mamoswine, who pushes back with its proboscidean tusks.

"**An ancient wonder against a diamond-hard serpent. Truly this is a match to behold!"** Lisia's voice excitedly rings out.

The former Champion of Kanto settles in an empty seat with a relaxed sigh, hands slapping down on his knees.

He watches Mamoswine rear its head back to flip Steelix over, and then turns to the cheering populace. Nothing seemed particularly out of the ordinary. He recognized a few Gym Leaders from Kanto rooting for the lithe brown-haired girl from Johto, as well as the enthusiastically yelling, shirtless Crasher Wake. But none of the ambiguous members of the audience struck him as anyone dangerous.

Blue's vision scans across the crowd, eventually settling on a girl just to his front-right whose head looked a bit like a pink croissant from behind. His curiosity piques as he leans forward to see the girl scarfing down a hot dog.

'Suspicious' was perhaps an apt term for a young girl in a sleeveless martial arts shirt that showed off a number of bandages. Especially when she happened to be barefoot in the middle of a crowded sporting event. However, Blue recognized the description enough to know she wouldn't be on the suspect list.

"Maylene, right?" He asks over her shoulder.

Sinnoh's Fighting-type Gym Leader seems surprised to be called out and almost chokes on the last bite of her hot dog. But she manages to swallow and compose herself quick enough to glance back before the pause got too awkward.

"Mmm… Yes. And if I'm not mistaken, you're Blue."

"The very same."

Blue grins and leans back, his mind immediately drifting away from the task at hand.

"Say, I know this great place back in Castelia to get ice cream if you want something to wash down your lunch," he says with a hand brushing back his hair. "I can fly you over there on my Pidgeot if you want some company."

Maylene gives him a knowing smirk and shakes her head.

"I appreciate the offer, but this match is kind of important to me."

As they talk, Diantha's voice washes over the crowd.

"**Oh! That Iron Head really does a number to Ice-types like Mamoswine."**

The pink-haired girl looks back at the stage with wide eyes and a gasp. Seeing Candice return her ancient hog, she jumps to her feet and cups her gloved hands around her mouth.

"C'mon Candice! Show this string bean how a Sinnoh girl does things!"

She slumps back into her seat with a huff, and Blue looks surprised at the aggressive outburst.

"… So, you two are good friends I take it?"

Maylene looks back over her shoulder, then turns her upper body to better face him. Her arms hang over the back of her seat.

"Something like that." With her shrug, it's clear that was all she was willing to say on the matter.

"I tried to help her prepare for battles against Fighting and Steel-types with my Lucario, but training can only stack up to the real deal so much."

"Definitely," Blue remarks as he brushes off his jacket.

There's a pause as Maylene turns back to the battle, but Blue just as quickly pulls her in again.

"Say, what's the deal with you Fighting-type trainers and Lucario anyway? It's a cool Pokémon and all, but between you and Korrina I'm starting to sense a pattern."

"A pattern? With just two trainers?" She looks less than impressed by the logic, and even snickers at him. "I think you just spend too much time ogling the cute girls, fly boy."

"Wha—" Blue feigns offense as he leans back with a hand over his heart.

"Admit it. You don't even know who Brawly's signature Pokémon is, do you?"

Blue scoffs and looks away, as if searching the audience for Hoenn's Fighting-type Gym Leader to get some sense of confirmation. Eventually he looks back to Maylene with a cool, collected smile.

"Of course I do. It's Hariyama."

"What about Hala?"

Blue snaps his fingers and grins wider.

"Crabominable. You'll have to try harder than that, I was just in Alola."

Maylene rubs her chin and nods thoughtfully.

"Okay, okay. Fair enough. How about Marshal then?"

All the confidence in Blue's face fades away as he tries to recall who Marshal was. The pink-haired girl can't help but laugh seeing steam pour out of his ears.

"Uhh… Marshal… He's… The one… That… Er…"

"Are you telling me you don't remember the world's greatest kickboxer? Student of Alder? Member of the Unovan Elite Four?"

"What? No, of course I remember him!" Blue laughs off her comment. "He uses a uhh… Umm…"

She lets him flounder a bit longer before facing the stage again.

"Conkeldurr is the monster you're looking for. Marshal also happens to train with a Lucario by the way, though I doubt you paid nearly as much attention to his bare feet as you did mine."

Blue is speechless. He tries to mouth the words for a response, but all that comes out is whimpering puffs of air.

"**Ohh, that's super effective!"** Nancy announces.

"No!" Maylene squeals as she stands back up to watch Candice's Froslass flies across the arena, propelled by a silvery Flash Cannon from Jasmine's Magnezone.

As the Ice-type Pokémon falls limp to the floor, Maylene grabs her hair from both sides and pulls, groaning.

"**And that's it, Candice's last Pokémon is out for the count. That means Johto's steel-clad girl is the last trainer moving into our first semifinal round!"**

Most of the crowd bursts into fanfare, but Maylene huffs and turns to start slipping away.

"Well it was nice to meet you, Blue… But I think my friend is going to need some of that ice cream."

While she heads off, Blue continues to sit in stunned silence and watch as Jasmine meekly waves to the audience. He takes a deep, slow breath and slinks down further into his chair, and then covers his face with one hand.

"Guess it's just going to be one of those days."


	12. A Dish best served Cold

There was a decently long break in the schedule to allow cast and crew time to prepare for the upcoming semifinal and final matches of the year's first tournament bracket. This was good for Maylene and Candice, who figured they would need the extra time to make it out to Castelia City and back.

However, they were pleasantly surprised to find the world-famous Casteliacone stand had set up shop in Driftveil City — obviously eager to cash in on the festivities.

"Castelia's Famous Casteliacone" was hard to miss, particularly for those ravenous visitors to Unova looking for a reprieve from the sweltering summer heat. Its pink-and-white striped carnival stand aesthetic stood out blatantly against the sage green trees and yellow flowers blooming on the small islet that served as an entryway to the Driftveil Drawbridge: A massive steel pathway over the wide river between Driftveil and Nimbasa that was famous for the spectacle of watching it rise to let through a freighter.

… Or, to be more accurate, it was infamous for the frustrating delays citizens cited whenever the bridge had to draw.

If nothing else, it provided a lovely backdrop to the Sinnoh Gym Leaders' conversation as they sat on a bench along the outer rim of the ornate gold statue situated at the center of the islet.

Just what was it a statue of? That depends on whom you asked.

To some, its elegant curvature was a symbol of the Unova Region itself: A region with a circular pattern to represent the unity of the people living throughout. It was incomplete to pay homage to the era in which the region was still burgeoning.

… If you asked a more pragmatic person than Burgh, they would tell you it was a piece of sheet metal bent into a crescent shape and painted gold. Likely to fit the gaudy image Clay tried to set for his ever-growing city.

Though almost nobody would argue against its value as a play place for small Pokémon.

"My friend says they call it the Charizard Bridge because of its striking red coat," Candice says.

Maylene looked up at the bridge while licking away at her ice cream; very quickly ruining the artistry that made it look like the Vanillite which once wandered the Cold Storage facility where the PWT arena now stands.

"I guess I can see that." She shrugs, scrunching her bare toes in the grass. "Kinda seems more like Charmeleon color scheme though, don'tcha think?"

The Ice-type leader snickers and shakes her head.

"I'm surprised you can see anything like that. How do you not have a killer brain freeze from eating so fast?"

With a grin, Maylene holds up a finger to punctuate her response.

However it's clearly predictable enough that Candice perfectly mimics her.

"Lots of focus."

"Lots of focus."

Maylene's shoulders slump and she huffs. "You're no fun, Candice."

"Well perhaps you shouldn't throw my line back at me so often then."

Candice giggles as Maylene continues to grumpily slurp down the ice cream, already gnawing at the cone before her friend can get far past the swirl on top.

The comfortable silence that settles is almost immediately broken as a young brown-skinned boy races down off Driftveil Drawbridge in a black t-shirt and flower-printed yellow swim trunks.

After he takes a very brief moment to adjust his backpack while looking completely awestruck at the sight of Driftveil City's emerald-roofed hotels, he races over to the bench where Maylene and Candice sat.

"A-lo-la ladies!" He begins with a large, completely unapologetic grin. His voice is dripping with sweet island-y syrup that could only have been bred in the Alola Region. "Do either of you know where I can find—"

All of a sudden he cuts himself off mid-sentence and does a double take, throwing his upper body and right arm back.

Though the boy had their attention at first, Maylene and Candice now give each other strange looks.

"Whoooa! That ice cream ya' got looks downright scrumptious! Where'd you get them good eats?"

His excitement is palpable from the way he leans forward now, pumping both arms repeatedly in anticipation of an answer.

Candice looks back at the boy first and smiles, starting to feed off of his energy.

"The stand is right behind us, actually. On the other side of the statue."

Again, the boy jumps back in shock. It seemed he could hardly do anything without putting a theatrical amount of animation into it.

"Oh no way! I'm going to get some cones for Lillie and Sun too, while I'm at it."

He turns and starts to run off with a laugh, orange foam clogs slapping against the soles of his feet. Maylene bends forward to try and follow his movement, looking pretty confused.

"Hey? Weren't you going to ask us about something?"

The boy skids to a halt, then whirls back around so he can re-approach them.

"Oh yeah, thanks for reminding me!" He smiles again and sounds a drawn-out 'hee' while throwing both arms behind his neck.

"You wouldn't happen to know where the tournament arena is, would you?"

Candice twirls one of her ponytails with the hand not encumbered by ice cream and nods.

"As a matter of fact, we were just there. Head into the city and hook a left. Then keep going until you reach the tunnel. Can't miss it."

"Hoooo-wah!" He exclaims with a little hop. "That's awesome! I'm so close, now I definitely won't miss my friend's match."

Both girls lean back a bit, afraid that he was about to hit them in the face. But they giggle together at his pure excitement.

"Glad Candice could help," the Ice-type Gym Leader remarked with a thumbs-up.

"Candice, huh?" The boy says as he calms down, resting a hand on his chin. "It's good to meetcha! I'm Hau, from Alola."

"And I'm Maylene. We're from the Sinnoh Region."

Hau laughs and shifts the hand from his face up into his dark green hair.

"Sinnoh, eh? That's so cool! I hear it's real chilly all over that place. I don't know if I could handle it."

Maylene looks over at Candice with a smirk.

"Something tells me you'd have enough energy to keep yourself warm."

A new voice suddenly speaks out from the small platform connecting the islet to Driftveil City proper:

"This seems like rather energetic company for you, Miss Maylene."

The ensemble doubles in size as a trio of men join in on the conversation. They wore identical outfits, reminiscent of waiters out of a fancy restaurant in Kalos: Complete with pressed slacks, cuffed sleeves and gold buttons running down their black shirts that led to aprons around their waists.

To differentiate the three based on their outfits, one only had to look at their bowties. Each one was a different color that matched their hair color and personality.

On the left, in a blue bowtie with flat, wavy hair that resembled Tangela's vines falling in his face, was Cress.

On the right, in a red bowtie with spiky, high-rising hair that resembled fire, was Chili.

Between them, in a green bowtie with a single unkempt tuft of hair that resembled a patch of grass, was Cilan.

It was Cress who first addressed Maylene, his voice calm and collected.

"Oh, hey guys!" The Fighting-type Gym Leader responds with a wave.

Candice looks up at them with an impressed gaze. She turns it to Maylene.

"You know them?"

"Yeah!" She jumps to her feet with a grin. "These are Cress, Chili and Cilan, the triplets who used to be Gym Leaders out of Striaton City."

"'Used to' being the… Uhh… Operative term." Cilan continues, clearing his throat in the process.

"We're just civilians now," Chili says. He was easily the most energetic of the three. "Still run our restaurant out of the old Gym space."

Maylene nods, bouncing on her toes.

"Last year I took a trip out there because I heard the buffet was so good. And it was!" She throws her arms out wide, giggling.

The three men seem appreciative of the compliment, but Maylene soon shrinks back into herself.

"I… May or may not have eaten them out of most of their stock, though." Her laugh is stilted and sheepish. "I'm still so sorry about that."

"It's still no trouble at all, honestly." Cress bows with an arm tucked under his chest.

"Yeah, if anything it was a valuable lesson." Chili grins as he puts his hands on his hips. "If you're going to offer a bottomless buffet, make sure the kitchen is well-stocked for anyone looking to take you up on it."

Hau can't restrain himself from butting into the conversation any longer. He practically explodes back into it:

"Mmm-mm! Boy does a buffet like that sound good! I'm starved from runnin' all the way here from Castelia." He steps toward the chefs with an eager giggle. "You all don't happen to serve malasadas in that restaurant a' yours, do you?"

The three men look between each other, as if speaking with telepathy like Tate and Liza.

Cilan looks forward first as their apparently chosen representative.

"I'm… Um… Afraid we don't. Though we do have plenty of other high-end desserts." He looks back toward the blue-haired brother. "Cress was an apprentice of Siebold, from Kalos' Elite Four."

Cress seems to wave off the praise like it was nothing.

"Yes, yes. So I was. It's not the name that's important, however." He gives a slight nod. "What's important is my seafood and pastries are now unmatched this side of the Battle Chateau."

Maylene slumps back down next to Candice and hums affirmatively.

"I can definitely vouch for his seafood. Especially the shrimp!"

Cress bows again.

"Thank you, Miss Maylene."

Hau stands back and looks between the five trainers with equal aplomb.

"Hoo… Wow, I didn't expect to meet so many amazing folks here on the mainland. Just wait until I tell Lillie about—"

He cuts himself off with that same shocked look as earlier.

"Oh shoot! Lillie! I totally forgot I was going to meet her before Lana's match!" The boy gives a sloppy bow to his new acquaintances before starting to run toward the city. "I have to go! But thanks so much everyone!"

The other five watch him disappear into the city, silent. Candice continues to lick at her Casteliacone, even though Maylene's was long gone.

"Well, he's an interesting character." Chili remarks, rubbing his neck.

The five turn to look at each other again.

"Certainly… We might have to drag him over to Striaton for a hot meal after the finals tonight." Candice giggles.

Before they can get much further, Hau's shoes can be heard slapping against his feet nearby again. When they look, he's racing back toward the bridge.

"I almost forgot about the ice cream!" He calls out with a wave.

A collective laugh breaks out as they watch him struggle to keep still, even when standing in a long line of hungry ice cream connoisseurs.


	13. The Lady in White

Inside the World Tournament arena, crowds of spectators were getting pumped up as Clay took to the stage so he could introduce the first brackets' semifinal matches.

But just outside, the empty grounds of the island that arena occupied seemed much more somber to a young girl on the sturdy wooden dock at its southern point.

She was entranced by the horizon, green eyes sparkling with the shimmering surface of the cobalt waters where it touched the light blue sky. Her hands were folded over her stomach as she gently held onto her left thumb, circling its nail with the soft skin of her other thumb.

"Ho! There you are, Lillie!"

The girl turns her head first, and then follows through by twirling the rest of her body to face the fast approaching green-haired boy. His heavy footsteps creak the water-worn dock before he stops in front of her, a swirling cone of ice cream in each hand.

Even though Lillie's face was shaded by a wide-brimmed sunhat over her loose blonde hair, Hau's radiant grin was infectious. It brought a little bit of a smile to her face.

"Well it took you long enough, Hau. We're going to miss the start of Lana's battle at this rate!"

"I know, I know." He catches his breath while she readjusts the strap of her pink backpack. "Acerola was real upset she couldn't come along. Took me and Tutu a while to calm her down."

There's a pause where he seems surprised to remember the dessert melting into each hand.

"Oh! Yeah, and I got some ice cream too." He holds one out for her.

Lillie takes the cone and looks at him with the kind of affection typically reserved for a child watching their pet Lillipup (or Rockruff, as it were) snooze.

"Aw… Thanks Hau. You always seem to know just what I need."

She starts to lick at the melting treat as Hau uses his free hand to triumphantly straighten his hips.

"Heard this stuff's world-famous, so I figured we couldn't miss out!" He starts to eat his own, but only gets about a second in before pulling the cone away to keep talking. "Would've gotten one for Sun too, but I ain't got the handy freedom of a Machamp."

Lillie has to stop eating when she giggles at the thought of her friend with four arms.

"Well I'm glad you thought of me first."

"Course!" He sheepishly scratches the back of his neck. "You do seem a bit upset though, Lillie. Is everything alright?"

Her eyes widen, but she tries to hide in her ice cream.

"What makes you say that…?" She mumbles with her tongue out, hidden by the food.

Hau starts to talk between the occasional slurp of his ice cream.

"I just haven't seen you wear that hat in a while, you know?"

Her eyes roll up to look at the brim of that hat, and her cheeks run red.

"H-How do you know I'm not just blocking out the sun?"

"The sun never seemed to bother you much in Alola." He shrugs. "Plus you're looking out for that ship awful impatient-like, yeah?"

With a huff, she takes off the hat and holds it over her sporty white tennis outfit.

"Am I truly that predictable?"

Hau lets out a hearty laugh to try and cheer her back up.

It does, at least a little.

"Nah, I wouldn't worry about it. I'm just so used to peppy Z-Lillie by now that it's hard not to notice the difference!"

"I see." Her smile brightens up a bit more thinking about the islander watching to see whether she was okay.

In fact, she probably would have dribbled ice cream all over herself while lost in thought if he hadn't pulled her back into reality with a shoulder touch.

"Heh heh. I think you need to bloom a bit of that confidence back, Lillie. I'm sure it's all going to work out!"

Lillie glances away and sighs.

"I don't know… I hope you're right, Hau." She shrugs and turns her attention back to his murky eyes. "It's going to be her first time at a big public event since we got back. What if it's all too overwhelming? What if—"

"He-e-ey, relax!" He interrupts what was obviously about to be a downward spiral by shaking her shoulder. "If anything goes wrong we'll all be around to help, yeah?"

"Mmm." Lillie closes her eyes and snickers. "We can just break out your Raichu for a bit of that soothing syrup smell. Right?"

"Right! Now you're getting it."

He shakes her again with a sharp-toothed grin, only stopping when she pushes him away with a giggle.

"Alright! Yes. I get it."

"Good!"

Hau snatches the hat from her hand and makes her duck her head down as he slips it on.

When she looks back up, the wide-brimmed covering was situated further back on her scalp than before with far less shadow covering her face. He could flash that smile across her exposed features that much easier now.

"Now then! We've gotta go see Lana kick some butt. Shall we?"

Lillie nods eagerly. "We shall!"

They head away from the dark ocean. Toward the bright lights and muffled cheers of the arena, and away from the large ship breaking into view far off on the horizon.


	14. Tate v Lana, plus a viewer Q&A

When Lillie and Hau head into the arena, Lana's match against Tate has barely begun.

A silver-plated samurai insectoid on the Water-type expert's side of the battlefield immediately disappears in a dash that leaves afterimages of itself rushing at the opposing Exeggutor. Each afterimage moves in jerky, incomplete motions that loop one after another. It seemed as though everyone in the audience was watching a motion picture with too few frames per second, and their persistence of vision was screwed.

By the time it became obvious that Lana's Golisopod was rearing the black claws on one of its larger limbs back, it was too late.

Suddenly time appeared to catch up with itself as Golisopod's afterimages disappeared. The only form left was a very solid and terrifying bug that lifted the three-headed palm tree up in the air, impaled and wheezing. The silvery Pokémon looked to be sneering as the purple antennae of its mask-like face twitched eagerly.

"**There's no way a Psychic and Grass-type Pokémon like Exeggutor survived a lethal blow of that caliber,"** Diantha says over the arena's speakers.

"**Yeah… Talk about a serious First Impression."**

Nancy nudges Lisia from the commentator's booth after she says that, which pretty much just elicits a chuckle from the blue-haired idol.

Golisopod throws the fainted body of its opponent to the ground after a moment of letting Tate anguish over the Pokémon's struggles from afar. It never had a chance to set up a Light Screen, as the young boy had commanded.

After that, Golisopod takes a casual step back from Exeggutor with its shield-like arms crossed. Lana mimics the confident stance, her fishing pole clutched tight as its hook dangles just above her flat blue hair.

"I told you she was going to do that," Tate's twin sister Liza chimes from the bottom of the staircase on his side of the arena.

Tate glowers in response as he returns his first Pokémon.

"I know you did, Liza!"

She throws her arms out with a scoff.

"Well why didn't you switch out then?"

"Because I had faith that our Pokémon could handle it!" He whirls around to face her, fists clenched by his side as three Pokéballs orbited around his hair bun.

"And that's why you need me there to keep you in check!"

"Are you saying I couldn't handle…"

"Yourself? Yes, that's exactly what…"

"You're saying! How dare you!"

At this point, Lana dropped her confident stance. She watches the twins bicker and finish each other's sentences while she scratches at her hair. Golisopod grows more impatient.

But her confusion soon cracks away and reveals a mischievous smile.

"You two don't have to fight you know," she calls out. "Your Pokémon honestly never stood a chance!"

"Huh?"

Tate turns back around and meets Lana's smug grin head-on. They were about the same age and height, so they were able to watch one another from equal footing — unlike with Grant from earlier in the afternoon, who towered over the Psychic-type expert.

"It's true." Lana walks up to her Pokémon and rests a hand on its shell.

"I won this Golisopod in a winner-takes-all battle with the biggest, baddest boss in all of Alola! He's got a real storied history. But that didn't stop me from beating him down, and beating him down, and never letting up until—"

"Enough of that!"

Tate huffs out a sharp breath with his arms crossed, leaving Lana pretty disappointed by cutting her off right as she was building up a giggly energy.

"I won't be fooled by your japes as easily as Flannery was," he says. "We're psychics. I can tell that you're lying!"

His opponent simply shrugs.

"So you say, but you must be pretty intimidated if you haven't made your next move. I'm starting to believe you Hoenn folk aren't all you're cracked up to be."

When Tate gives Lana a suspicious squint, his second Pokéball bursts open. It releases a smiling, bipedal purple-and-black pig.

The Grumpig shifts its weight from leg to leg and pumps its arms around its waist. Snorts occasionally ring out over the Hoenn-themed battle music that Koffing and the Toxics continued to shred throughout the twins' argument.

"I'm so _not_ intimidated that we'll let you make the first move," Tate says as he steadies his breath.

"If you say so." Lana steps back and holds out her fishing pole like a pointer. "Use Liquidation, Golisopod!"

The silver-shelled Pokémon hisses before rushing forward for another strike. This time its shielded arms start to bubble as they become coated in sheets of water that reinforce the armor plating.

But before it can lash out, Grumpig's eyes flash and its black pearls glow.

When Grumpig lifts both arms, Golisopod floats into the air to follow the motion. It struggles to try and swipe at the Psychic-type still, but that leaves it aimlessly spinning in the air.

Tate keeps quiet as he gestures his head to the side.

Grumpig starts to dance by bouncing between its feet. The dance ends with Grumpig swinging its arms toward the arena's large display screen.

Lana's Pokémon is sent soaring in that same direction, colliding with the screen. A large sect of the audience gasps as the thwack of its carapace against the device sends sparks flying and momentarily leaves a wave of discolored pixels washing over its display.

Golisopod plummets back down to the stage as Nancy speaks up from the commentator's booth.

"**Maybe try not to destroy the facilities here, Tate. I can't imagine Clay would be very happy about that."**

The twin looks up at the skybox and pumps a fist with determination.

"I'll do whatever I need to if it means securing victory!"

From the other side of the stage, Golisopod slowly lifts its upper body off the ground, but struggles to keep steady as small bolts of yellow energy jolt across its musculature.

It manages to look up and click its mandibles under the purple mask. One could almost imagine it spouting off some one-liner, which was immediately followed by its body collapsing back into a tiny ball of digital red energy. The energy returns itself into a Pokéball that Lana had yet to draw.

"**Très magnifique! Wimpod and Golisopod are quite special for their abilities to automatically retreat once they've taken too much damage,"** Diantha says. **"I believe we just got to see that skill in action!"**

Lana starts to rummage through her pocket for another Pokéball.

"Alright, you got a solid hit on my Golisopod. But you won't get so lucky with this next Pokémon! I caught him off the rocky coast of Poni Island, where he was holding his own against the guardian Tapu Fini on a dark, stormy—"

"Would you get on with it?" Tate interjects. "I'd like to win…"

"Sooner rather than later." Liza finishes.

The blue-haired girl sighs as she fishes out a Pokéball and holds it gingerly.

"You guys are no fun," she laments. "So this should be!"

Lana tosses out her Sharpedo: As the name would suggest, a torpedo-shaped shark with beady red eyes, notched fins and a yellow star on the blue skin over its mouth.

The shark vibrates as it lets out a growl before gnashing its sharp rows of teeth.

Tate's eyes widen seeing the Dark-type Pokémon hit the field. He knew that his Psychic-type attacks would have no effect, and has a mental conference with Liza to figure out what his next move should be.

Luckily, they had prepared for possible encounters with Dark-types.

"Grumpig, use Signal Beam!" He calls out loud.

The purple pig holds both hands together and lets loose a pair of beams — one red and one green — that twist like a condensed helix as they blast toward Sharpedo.

"Quick, avoid it with an Aqua Jet!"

Sharpedo zips out of the way of the beam, leaving small waves in its wake. The Pokémon curves around the circumference of the arena at a high speed until it collides with Grumpig. Tate's monster barely has the time to react before tumbling across the stage from the impact.

While Sharpedo easily slows into an idle stance, it takes Grumpig longer to rise back to its feet. Some of the skin on the right side of its body almost looked sheared off.

"**It appears as though Sharpedo's Rough Skin did a number on Grumpig,"** Diantha says.

Lana was ready to capitalize. She orders her Pokémon to use Crunch, but has to look away as the monster aggressively digs its teeth into their opponent's raw flesh.

Grumpig squeals, and soon it's clear the Psychic-type is down for the count.

"**That's a critical blow if I've ever seen one,"** Nancy remarks as Tate returns his second Pokémon.

"**It seems like Lana has this battle on lock,"** Lisia adds. **"Will Tate be able to bring it back?"**

"I believe we can…" Tate mutters through gritted teeth.

His third and final Pokéball sends out Solrock. Once again the levitating sun-shaped meteorite has a collected expression with wise-looking eyes, but this time it greatly contrasted with Tate's hand shaking nervously by his side.

"Solrock, use Sunny Day!"

The Pokémon floats higher into the air. Its eyes glint as a harsh sunlight condenses, cutting through the closed dome ceiling and the electronics that covered it.

"Seriously?" Lana scoffs and shakes her head. "You know Flannery just tried to pull this same maneuver on me and it didn't work, right?"

"Flannery was on the right track," Tate acknowledges with a smile. "She just didn't have the height advantage."

Lana looks up to see Solrock nearly bump into the ceiling. It stops at just the right moment and carefully begins to rotate toward the floor with precision akin to a satellite.

Her eyes widen. "Sharpedo, avoid their next attack with another Aqua Jet!"

The shark Pokémon jostles in place before starting to circle the arena's perimeter at a high speed.

It narrowly avoids the intense beam of lime green energy that cascades down from the sky, as though judgment from Arceus themselves. Solrock's Solarbeam is so intense that it starts to char the floor. However, the structural damage is mitigated as Tate's Psychic-type begins spinning to follow Sharpedo's movement. From that high up the meteoric creature was like the tower of a panopticon: Sharpedo was in sight no matter where it tried to go.

But Sharpedo was too fast for the heavier Rock-type to keep up with, so it managed to avoid evaporation long enough for Solarbeam to dissipate.

As soon as the attack was over, Solrock drifted back toward the ground.

"Now Sharpedo, follow-up with a Crunch!"

The ocean-dwelling Pokémon manages to turn on a dime while still circling the arena, using that forward momentum to rush its opponent in the center. The Pokémon's teeth are sharp enough to dig into even solid rock, which leaves Solrock emitting a low, humming cry that one can only assume is pain.

"Careful Solrock, knock it off with a Gyro Ball!"

It takes a second for Solrock to pull itself free enough to start spinning. It turns out that was a good trick.

A metallic screech echoes as Sharpedo's teeth grind against the stone body twirling at increasing speeds. Lana and Tate cover their ears alongside various members of the audience, but soon Sharpedo gets knocked away.

At first Sharpedo seems down for the count. It slowly floats backward with the tip of its dorsal fin dragging along the floor.

But then it manages to shake off the stun and front-flip back into a regular position, teeth gnashing with a visible anger. Lana claps her right hand against her fishing pole a few times in celebration, and then flicks it toward Solrock.

"Let's finish this up with a Waterfall!" She announces.

Sharpedo snarls as it writhes in place to build up an aura of frothy, briny water. Then it begins to surf through the air toward its opponent, more water building up.

"Don't let her get you that easily Solrock," Tate says. "Use Cosmic Power!"

Flashing lights surround Solrock as it tries to harden its rocky shell with a rainbow veneer.

Their collision is intense and the crashing sound reverberates, but only drags Solrock back a few inches.

Water splashes everywhere as Sharpedo struggles to push against a now unmoving wall. Tate grins as he watches his Pokémon hold its own.

"Now we've got you. Solrock, use Solar—"

"Crunch!" Lana yells, catching Tate off guard and interrupting his command.

The watery coating around her Pokémon breaks away as it rears back, and then thrusts forward to apply another bite straight into the rock.

As Solrock whines out, Sharpedo shakes the Psychic-type around like a ragdoll. Then it lets go so Solrock slams onto the ground and skids across the floor toward its trainer. Tate drops to his knees so he can catch the Pokémon in a big hug.

"Ah, geez…" He mutters while resting his cheek against the fainted stone body.

The music cuts off with a sharp twang as Lisia leans into her microphone.

"**What a landslide victory for Lana! It really seems like this girl can take this all the way to be a real superstar!"**

Her singsong tone is met with agreement from both of the other commentators

Tate sighs when he stands up, catching the Pokéball his Solrock returned to as it falls out of the air.

By then, Lana had crossed the battlefield so she could hold a hand out for her opponent.

"Good game, Tate."

He offers her a slight nod while they shake hands, and then smiles. Liza hops up the stairs and runs up so she can join her brother.

"Same to you," Tate says. "You really washed me away."

Lana laughs.

"I appreciate it! Though to be fair, I'm not sure you stood a chance while I had two half Bug-types waiting in the wings."

He looks away sheepishly at that comment. Liza pats his shoulder.

"We probably could have won!" His face runs red with embarrassment. "If I'd been thinking about our strong teamwork instead of arguing with my sister the whole time…"

"Aww. I think you did fine, Tate!" Liza hugs him, and he hugs her back. With the colored buttons of their outfits covered, it was much harder to tell who was who.

When they pull apart, Tate throws an arm around his sister's shoulder and turns so they could both look up at the commentator's booth.

"If this were a double's tournament, we would have won in a heartbeat!" He proclaims with a smile.

Liza giggles and starts to bounce on her toes.

"Absolutely! When are we going to get one of those, you guys?"

From up in the booth, Nancy shrugs and gives a cheeky grin to the camera.

"**Seems like these two have a pretty interesting business proposition for you, Clay. Might wanna chat with them after the show!"**

Lisia turns to the pink-haired girl and excitedly tugs at her sleeve.

"**Ohh! Ohh! If there was that kind of event, would we team up for it Nance?"**

She thinks over the proposition with a low groan and rubs the back of her neck, taking a moment to think over how to respond to the idol. At this point Diantha had rolled her chair back and was watching with a smile.

"**Mmm… I'll think about it, Lisia."** Then in a sly turn, looks back at the camera. **"Let me get back to you during this next commercial break!"**

* * *

_**Hey everybody, it's time for a bit of a longer author's note! Last week I got a really insightful review on this story that made me think over my writing process a bit. Unfortunately "G" left it as a guest, which means I have no way to discuss their points directly.**_

_**So I wanted to address their comments by copying what they wrote and answering each point.**_

_**Thanks so much for reading my story and taking the time to discuss it, G! I honestly appreciate the way you've helped me reflect, which can only improve my writing for you all going forward. Next time go ahead and drop your thoughts with a regular profile so we can talk organically, I think it'd be fun!**_

* * *

_1\. My biggest question here is who Lillie is paired with, Sun or Hau (though I REALLY ship Sun with Lillie)._

Personally, I ship Lillie with Hau. I did like her with Sun a lot too, so I have no qualms with that pairing! My first experience in Pokémon Moon just happened to shape my web of shipping headcanons a particular way for the Alola cast, and that's what I'm riffing on.

I've considered writing out "how we got here" side-stories based on some specific pairings, but I wasn't sure people would be interested in reading multiple Pokémon things out of me. If you are, please let me know!

* * *

_2\. Also, I am a little miffed that the Candice and Jasmine battle was basically glossed over, though if you simply did not have the energy to write it, I understand. While character interactions off-stage are good, I think the real highlight is the battles themselves._

The decision to have the Candice/Jasmine battle happen in the background was intentional; it wasn't supposed to come across as glossing things over. The only chapter that has come from a lack of energy was the Lillie one last week that pushed off this battle.

As I've got further into this story, I grew concerned that my audience would get bored watching the same style of battling get written out over and over again. Having battles occur in the background of different character interactions, or having those interactions completely overtake battles in an "around Unova" set of chapters are some of the ideas I've come up with to try and keep things fresh.

Doing that style of writing was in no way meant to come across as my being lazy or shorting you extra content. I assure you that everything I put out is intentional, even if it seems like I'm skipping over details.

However if you all really crave the battles as highlights, I'm more than happy to correct course and give them more of the focus!

* * *

_3\. P.S. I was a bit confused when you said no battle items, yet you clearly had Skyla using a Power Herb in her battle against Marlon. What exactly are you getting at with that rule?_

You're absolutely right to call me out on this. It was simply a lapse of judgment.

I'll be transparent: The long arc of this story is planned out, beyond simple chapter-by-chapter character interactions. I have all of my trainer match-ups for each tournament, as well as the Pokémon they'll be using, written up in a separate document.

As a result, I'm slightly more focused on setting up ideas and foreshadowing, which has left some details I brought up in the past falling through the cracks.

While the overarching details are planned out, the actual structure of each battle is not set in stone. I've been writing these as they come so my imagination can be fresh, as that works for me when it comes to action scenes. I probably thought the Power Herb was a cool battle idea without remembering the rule I had set up earlier.

That said, I will incorporate the mistake into my story so it can read somewhat more naturally. It might make the characters seem dumber in the moment to make up for my error, but overall the experience will branch well into a plot point I've been hoping to write for some time.

* * *

_4\. Finally, I would appreciate less curbstomp battles and more close shaves. These Gym leaders are type specialists for a reason, and we should see how they can put up a fight even with overwhelming matchup disadvantages._

I'm not really sure what you're trying to say with this last point. I wouldn't consider any of the battles I've depicted being one Gym Leader curb stomping the other — except this chapter's fight, which was very much by design.

I've been particular about trying to present balanced match-ups, with leaders using teams based on what you can see in _Black & White 2_'s PWT or _X & Y_'s Battle Chateau. But I've tried to build team composition and move pools as though the characters themselves are taking advantage of the foresight that comes with bracket announcements.

The Lana/Flannery fight feels like a good example of this, as I had Flannery focus primarily on utilizing Sunny Day strategies to mitigate the disadvantages she would have against a Water-type expert. Though conversely I know the Skyla fight might have felt one-sided because I accidentally cheated my own rules.

I do have at least one battle in my second bracket planned that will explicitly explore how a "randomized" tournament seeding would screw over certain trainers more than others, as I know I've mostly avoided the preparation Gym Leaders go through so far.

I won't go too in-depth and spoil the surprise, but let's just say a Dragon-type trainer would feel pretty frustrated getting paired up with a Fairy-type expert.

* * *

_**Once again, thanks to everyone who has stuck with me for this story! Obviously it's not perfect, but all of your views and follows really encourage me to strive for as great a product as I can write.**_

_**See you next chapter!**_


	15. Interlude of Interviews

"I can't believe we screwed this up so badly," Nancy says. Her voice is muffled as her head is in her hands while she leans over the desk in the commentator's skybox, and the self-effacing tone suggested she was starting to break character.

She, Lisia and Diantha were alone. The crew had all stepped out for a break.

After all, the battle that was scheduled for this timeslot had been cancelled.

"I don't think it's nearly as bad as you're imagining, Nance."

Lisia had rolled her chair all the way back against the wall. She held out a small hand mirror while teasing the end of her jagged ponytail to keep it from flaying apart.

"It was one mistake, I doubt it's going to kill our careers." She offers the back of her friend's head a smile. "If anything, I just feel bad for Skyla getting DQ'ed."

Nancy shakes her head in response, making the drill of pink hair hanging off the side wiggle around.

"She's right mon amie," Diantha adds. The Champion was standing near one of the large windows overlooking the mostly empty arena. "Besides it really was quite an inspired maneuver, don't you think? It's no wonder we overlooked it."

"What we 'overlooked' was cheating, Diantha." Nancy pulls her head out of her hands, showing off somewhat messy makeup and disheveled hair around where her headphones sat before she left them on the desk. "If anything we encouraged it!"

Lisia puts the mirror in her lap with a huff and slowly rolls the chair up to Nancy by stretching her legs out and pulling herself forward inch by inch.

"You're so-o-o-o-o overreacting!" The turquoise-haired girl's words blend together as she leans in to hug Nancy from behind. "A Contest star like me? A superstar T.V. personality like you? There's no way Clay could think of firing us without a ton of backlash!"

"I'm not so worried about getting fired as I am ruining our reputation."

"This is the first big mistake we've made in three years. It happens!"

"Yeah, but our mistake brought on this unexpected break. We were already way off schedule after the Marlon battle cleanup… Now everything's shot!"

"You are right," Diantha cuts in as she walks up to the desk, looking at the girls with a reassuring smile. "But to be fair, Lisia did offer a solid back-up plan."

Nancy looks at Lisia over her shoulder. The idol had a large grin.

"About that… Are you sure sending those two out is really a good idea, Lisia?"

Lisia scoffs at the question and rolls away from Nancy, holding a hand over her heart as she lets the chair twirl wildly on its own.

"Of course! I'd trust Gabby and Ty with my life."

"They just seem like…" Nancy pauses, rubbing her chin as she thinks over how she can say it without offending her friend's friends. "You know. Paparazzi? Didn't they basically make a name for themselves by hounding Brendan all the time?"

"Obviously they know who the big stars are!" Lisia rebukes. "And aren't you the girl who pulls your Natey-kins on camera whenever she needs something? Tee-hee!"

She was clearly teasing, and even Diantha chuckles at the comment. But it gets Nancy flustered all the same. Her cheeks flare up as she sputters out a weak response.

"That's totally different!"

"She's just messing with you mon amie," Diantha says while looking over her fingernails. "Besides, they're only interviewing a few people on the street to fill time. What could possibly go wrong?"

* * *

The twilit streets of Driftveil City were bustling with activity as tourists from across the world roamed aimlessly, waiting for an announcement about the new start time for the final match of the day.

However, viewers of the official PWT broadcast would have their attention currently pulled a little too close to a trainer's upper body.

This wavy-haired boy had the cool, collected fashion of an ace trainer from the Kalos region: A grey-brown two-piece suit with lavender highlights and a popped collar around his white ascot tie. Yet his look clashed with a nervous demeanor as he stared into the camera. It, as well as a microphone with a red foam cover, was shoved in his face.

"I… I think it would be cool if Jasmine won, I guess?" The purple-haired boy mumbles before offering a shrug.

The cameraman Ty — wearing a grey shirt with a Rotom stitched into the hip, a pair of blue jeans and a backwards ball cap over his scruffy black hair — appeared to be having trouble keeping the shot steady as he carried the camera over his shoulder. It cut the top half of the ace trainer's hair out of frame.

"Is there any particular reason?" The reporter, Gabby, asks while briefly pulling the microphone back toward herself before thrusting it back in her interviewee's face.

"I don't know. I guess her ponytail-ear things are pretty cute?" He brings his hands up and gives himself fake animal ears by cupping them as they jut out of his hair.

It did sort of resemble the gym leader's hair, to be honest.

"Also I like the way she yells 'clang' before battle to gear herself up."

"Perfect. Well thank you very much for your time!"

He barely has the chance to thank Gabby in turn before she starts to head in a different direction, leaving Ty scrambling to follow along so that the microphone cord doesn't pull too taut and pop out.

Ty settles on a wide shot of Gabby as she slowly walks backward through the streets of Driftveil. Her white flats click against the pavement as she tries not to trip while simultaneously keeping a bright smile for the camera. That red-capped microphone is steady in front of the V-neck of her sleeveless green top.

"As you can see there are plenty of trainers who are excited to see Lana and Jasmine face off soon," she says.

Her voice is forced to be somewhat deep and her tone is clearly premeditated to give each word as professional a presentation as possible.

"But there are also plenty of famous trainers all around Driftveil, looking to take advantage of the traffic in this beautiful city to meet tough challengers or make new friends."

She stops walking for a moment and swaps the microphone to her left hand so she can make a sweeping gesture to the right. Ty follows her suggestion and frames Driftveil's open-air marketplace in his shot.

"For instance, just over here you can see the Gym Leader Erika from Kanto leading what appears to be a flower arranging lesson."

And in fact, she was. The kimono-wearing Grass-type expert was standing at a table with a vase full of different flowers. She held out a red rose in her hands that the crowd of mostly girls (and one well-known heartbreaking biker) around her coveted.

Next to her vase was an excited Bellossom, dancing a little hula. The leaves of its grassy skirt jostle side-to-side.

"What a kind girl she is," Ty says as if to prompt Gabby.

When he turns the camera back toward her, she was running her free hand through her straight brown hair to brush it back, that way the audience could better see her dangling white earrings.

"Definitely! And she's just one of many who are hanging around here. You can also see…"

She pauses to look around, clutching the microphone to her chest as she holds her other hand over her eyes like a visor.

"Ah! Look out there; you can see the Fighting-type Gym Leader Brawley talking with Marlon." Ty turns toward her gesture, and indeed those two were off by the bridge connecting to that islet where the Casteliacone stand sat.

"No doubt they're talking about the best places to surf here in Unova, if I know Brawley well enough."

"No doubt, no doubt." Ty says to keep her going.

"Now, who else is…" Gabby mumbles to herself, spinning in place as she tries to locate a new target.

She luckily manages to spot something that brightens her expression before her white pant legs get too wrapped up in the microphone wire.

"Ah! Over here, let's go."

She unwraps herself and hustles over to a streetlamp with three figures standing underneath it. Ty's shot shows all three as they approach: A purple-haired woman with glasses and a poufy black scarf standing across from a lithe boy with spiky blue hair and a little girl in a green dress whose brown hair was tied with a pink bow.

"Excuse me!" Gabby exclaims, catching the attention of all three. The reporter focuses mainly on the woman in purple, which makes her the focus of the frame.

"If I'm not mistaken, you're Shauntal aren't you? Member of the Unova Elite Four?"

Shauntal giggles as she closes the red notebook in her right hand and adjusts her wide-eyed spectacles.

"One and the same!" She chimes before leaning forward to get her face close to the camera. "We're on T.V. then I take it?"

"Yep." Ty remarks.

"We're doing some man-on-the-street interviews before the big final match tonight," Gabby continues. "If you would be interested?"

"Oh well of course!" Shauntal nods eagerly again and hugs the book to her chest with both arms. She casts a brief glance toward the other two. "Would you two mind?"

"I'd love to too!" The little girl squeals. That leads Ty to pull out the frame so all three can be seen in it.

The boy with the spiky hair, red-and-white jacket and blue pants sighs, but nods.

"If she's in, then I'm in too. I guess."

Shauntal chuckles and waves a playfully dismissive hand.

"This is Hugh, by the by. He's a Pokémon League contender who was just telling me about the tragic story of his sister's stolen Purrloin! I'm thinking about using a similar tale in my next book."

"Oh?" Gabby turns the microphone to Hugh, who scoffs as he stuffs his hands in his pockets.

The white collar of his jacket jutted up high enough that his mouth was able to hide behind the fabric as he ducks his head.

"It's a long story. I'd rather not have to tell it again — especially on camera."

"Of course, no worries!" Gabby says as she holds the microphone between the three so she can turn it to whoever speaks first. "All we're really looking to know is who you all would like to see come out on top in the final battle tonight."

Shauntal gasps and clutches her book tighter, its cover squeaking against her lavender gloves.

"Oh gosh, that's hard!" She puffs out her cheeks and thinks it over. "I'm honestly not on any one person's side, I just want to see an amazing match. PWT season is my favorite time of the year, because there are so many powerful and inspirational trainers here!"

"I see," Gabby says with a nod. Then she turns toward the others. "How about you guys?"

"I want Lana to win!" Hugh's sister cries out, cutting off whatever he was about to say. "She's young like me, but she's so strong like my brother!"

Hugh's serious expression falters into a somewhat goofy smile as he ruffles his sister's hair. She giggles and playfully asks him to knock it off.

"Guess I can't argue with her. My vote is on Lana." He nods at the camera.

"Great! Thank you so much Quilfish boy," Gabby says.

Hugh looks briefly confused, and then a little annoyed. However, before he can say anything, the camera turns toward Shauntal.

"And thank you for your time, I'm sure the Elite Four keeps you awfully busy!"

"Oh don't worry, it was my pleasure!" Shauntal has a big smile as she waves good-bye to the audience at home.

"My hair doesn't look that much like—"

That's the most Hugh can sound off before Gabby and Ty run off, looking for their next target.

"Such a lovely group," Gabby says. "I do hope that girl's Purrloin was okay… But I guess we'll have to wait for Shauntal's next book to find out!"

As they make their way further into the city, the reporter and her cameraman happen upon a boy leaving one of the large emerald-topped hotels. The blond wore all black with some red highlights: The bloody scar pattern on his hoodie, the pouch around his waist and his sneakers.

All of his clothing appeared to be shredded by claws, and the ribbon-y look extended to his half-shaved head.

"Excuse me! Excuse me, sir! Might we have a moment of your time?" Gabby calls out as the two quickly pull this unsuspecting boy on camera.

The bright green eye not covered by the mess of hair hanging over the right side of his face widens. He turns just off to the side and poses with one hand covering the eye behind his hair, that way the glare of his exposed eye is more focused on the screen.

"Get that damn thing out of my face," he remarks with a scowl. "If this is about my mother coming, I have no comment."

Gabby and Ty look at one another with confused, blank stares before returning to the boy in black.

"Umm… Actually, we're just doing a spot for the tournament broadcast," Gabby says. "We wanted to see if you have an opinion on tonight's final match."

The boy looks surprised before dropping his guard. He loses the silly pose and stands normally for the camera — though that makes everything look like a mug shot.

"Ah. I see... Sorry about that, then." He clears his throat and looks to Gabby. "Remind me, what is the match-up again?"

Gabby's expression brightens up when she sees him going along.

"Well, we've got the Steel-clad girl from Johto, Jasmine; up against the Water-type Trial Captain from Alola, Lana!"

The boy winces and then scoffs, putting a hand up to his face again.

"Geez… She made it all the way to the finals?" He sighs. "Well I'll say Lana should win, then. Sun would lob my head off if I didn't root for her."

"Oh!" Gabby juts her microphone a bit closer to him, clearly interested. "Do you know her then?"

The boy looks confused again, as if finally piecing together that he wasn't talking to people that knew whom he was.

"Yeah, I do." He clears his throat. "I'm Gladion. You know… President of the Aether Foundation? From Alola?"

Gabby gasps before she and Ty give each other shocked looks.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry sir!"

"Yeah, sorry man." Ty pulls the shot back a little.

"It's fine, I—"

"We didn't realize!" Gabby continues, cutting over Gladion's comment — much to his chagrin. "There hasn't been much news about Aether's new President since all the business with wormholes and whatnot."

"It's fine!" Gladion snaps through gritted teeth, silencing Gabby in the process.

He clears his throat right after and puts his hands on his hips.

"Is that all? I have someone to meet."

"Yes," Gabby quickly mutters. "Thank you so much for your time!"

Gladion nods and walks off. Ty follows, getting a brief look at him walking away before the boy in black disappears into a passing crowd.

"Boy, he's intense…" Gabby says.

"Totally."

Before the two have a chance to recompose themselves and move on, a curious man approaches them.

"What's going on over here?"

The camera focuses on this stranger. He didn't appear to be any sort of significant figure, just a black-haired man in a pair of black slacks and a brown sweater.

Gabby doesn't mind. She simply smiles and pushes the microphone in his face.

"We're out here looking for some thoughts on the upcoming match between Lana and Jasmine! Do you have any you'd like to share, good sir?"

The man leans back to think this over. He brushes his five o'clock shadow with a contemplative hum.

However, his curious look is soon replaced with a sharp-toothed grin.

"I don't know that I have much of an opinion on that. But I am _really_ looking forward to the Champ's Tournament on Sunday. Something tells me that will be really… Explosive."

He lets out a belly laugh, dark-ringed eyes closing. It's somewhat aggressive and lasts a while, but Gabby just brushes that off with a slight chuckle of her own.

"I'm sure it will be too!"

Ty turns the camera to look at Gabby just as their interviewee starts to glare down the audience with his sharp grin.

"Well thank you very much for your time. Let's see what else we can get our hands on before heading back to the arena. After all, you never know who's hiding out in the busy streets of Driftveil!"


	16. Lana v Jasmine

"**Apologies for the wait mesdames et messieurs,"** Diantha announces. Her voice washes over the crowd, silencing the ravenous bunch.

Night had fallen. It was time for the last match of the day.

Lana, the young Water-type expert from Alola; and Jasmine, the shy Steel-type expert from Johto, already stood across from one another on the battling stage. The tension in the air was thick.

"**It's been a long afternoon riff with the highs and lows of high-octane battles here in Driftveil City's PWT arena,"** Nancy continues. **"But I can tell that our finalists have a burning passion for the craft that will undoubtedly shine through."**

"**By now I'm sure they need no introduction from us, so we'll let the competitors give us their thoughts before we jump in!"** Lisia giggles and brushes a strand of her turquoise hair out to the side.

"**On the red side, we have Lana!"**

The blue-haired girl looks out over the cheering crowd and gives them a demure smile. She offers them a wide wave with her bamboo fishing pole until the energy dies down.

"Well," she says while scratching her hair. Stalling for just a moment to think.

"What is there to say? Except that I'm about ready to..." She pauses to pantomime casting her line with a goofy smile. "Reel in one last big catch!"

A decent chunk of the audience laughs at her comment and the way she holds her position, one leg in the air with the pole thrust forward.

One girl with green hair in an apron jumps to her feet, holding up a large white sign that shows a single Wishiwashi jumping up a waterfall next to the words 'ALL THE RIGHT STUFF' in bright red.

"You can do it Lana!" She screams out, hyped on by a few others nearby. "Give her a taste of defeat!"

Once the crowd dies down, Lisia speaks again.

"**And on the blue side, we have Jasmine!"**

Jasmine doesn't showboat to the crowd. She leans away from the attention and the cheering by closing her eyes, taking a deep breath and folding her hands in front of the orange ribbon adorning her knee-length green-and-white dress.

The Johto Gym Leader was a tall, gangly girl with shiny brown hair that stretched down to the small of her back. Though her height gave her an imposing stature, Jasmine was notoriously shy when it came to interacting with anyone beyond her own Pokémon.

However she was just as notorious for her tenacity in battle.

As the crowd starts to relax, Jasmine's eyes open as she thrusts her arms back down to her sides with a tenser stance.

"Um… Even if Steel-types don't have an advantage against Water-types, don't expect us to rust away!"

Her fists tighten at her sides.

"You stand no chance against our…" She jumps into a defensive fighter's stance, fists held out. "Clang! Tempered defenses!"

From up in the commentator's box, Diantha rubs her hands together.

"**This should be exciting,"** the Champion says with a giddy chuckle. **"Care to get us started, Roxie? Let's not keep the crowd waiting!"**

"You got it!" The punk-rock star calls out, turning to her band mates near the stage.

She counts down with her Koffing crossbones-patterned guitar pick high in the air. As soon as she hits 'one,' she brings the pick down for one hard, reverberating strum that underlies the slow, rhythmic build-up of the official PWT's climactic battle theme.

Multi-colored searchlights flip on around the perimeter of the arena. They wave back-and-forth with the music's building tempo.

When the song hits a brief pause to transition into the main body, Lana and Jasmine both toss out their Pokéballs.

* * *

The first match-up: Lana's snarling Golisopod against Jasmine's Magnezone, lightly buzzing with electricity as it levitates above the floor.

"**Jasmine was right about Steel-types having a disadvantage here, so balancing that with an Electric-type is a smart move,"** Diantha says.

"Golisopod, First Impression!" Lana calls.

Like last time, the silvery bug moves so quickly that time seems to distort around it. But this time the impact of the attack is less dramatic.

Golisopod gets a solid hit right in the center of Magnezone's target-shaped main red pupil, leaving its eye bouncing around with a technological, glitchy imprecision as it floats away. But once the Pokémon refocuses, it looks no worse for the ware.

"Use Electric Terrain!" Jasmine calls out, receiving a few beeps in response.

The yellow antenna at the top of Magnezone's saucer-shaped body starts to ping as the screws jutting out of each orb on its sides begin to twist in and out of the machine. Then, with a call that sounds like a garbled radio transmission, Magnezone turns all three of its attached magnets toward the floor. Intense magnetic waves pulse out of the blue-and-red tipped horseshoes, accompanied by a thick yellow mist.

The pulses and mist hit Golisopod like an ocean wave and send it tumbling away from Magnezone. However, once Magnezone stops pumping out the mist it settles onto the floor of the arena. Now it looked like the trainers and their Pokémon were standing on a fluffy yellow cloud that occasionally arced off bolts of electricity.

"Ah!" Lana yelps as she hops from foot-to-foot, trying to avoid getting her feet zapped. "Careful Golisopod, we've seen what this stuff does for Tapu Koko."

Jasmine seems less fazed by the change in terrain. She simply smiles.

"Alright Magnezone, now use Discharge."

Her Pokémon responds with another garbled radio sound before turning its three magnets away from its body. Diantha makes some comment about the Electric Terrain boosting the power of Electric-type attacks, but the audience is more entranced by the sight of a sparking yellow dome forming around Magnezone and expanding until it collides with Lana's Golisopod. In the background, the song had transitioned from something like a nervous heartbeat into a properly chipper, high-energy tune that matched the electric energy.

The bug squeals as it flies back from the hit, but still manages to get up once it passes.

Lana pumps her fist and mutters a few encouraging words before speaking out properly again.

"We prepared for this Golisopod," she says. "Use Drill Run!"

Golisopod takes a step back and puts its sharp claws bent inward above its head like a drill bit. It takes a few seconds for her Pokémon to build up enough of a running charge that it can leap into the air and fly toward Magnezone, spinning rapidly.

Unfortunately Golisopod was rather slow when it couldn't rely on priority moves, and Jasmine is ready to take advantage of that.

"Use Magnet Rise, now!"

Magnezone pulsates with more electrical energy at the command, cackling with the stuff. Then, just before Golisopod makes contact, it floats up toward the ceiling quick enough that it almost looked like teleportation.

Lana's Pokémon misses its attack and winds up drilling into the floor instead, which leaves it vulnerable while trying to pry its claws out of the shredded ground under all of the yellow mist.

"**Levitating like that will take Magnezone out of Electric Terrain's field of influence,"** Diantha announces. **"But like we saw with Tate's last battle, the high ground can be an indispensible advantage."**

"That's right!" Jasmine agrees with a slight smile as she throws her right arm out for dramatic effect. "Magnezone, use Zap Cannon!"

Once again the two screws on Magnezone's back begin to twirl in and out, this time accompanied by its single red eye flashing like a warning light. Much like Solrock before it, the Electric-type Pokémon turns itself toward the field with precision akin to a satellite, and locks onto Golisopod with an affirmative beep.

The two main magnets facing forward on the Pokémon's figure tilt toward each other. Currents of electricity start to run between them, and the energy collects itself into a large, yellow orb.

Lana looks panicked from the ground, waving her fishing rod to encourage her partner to move out of the way.

"Come on, dodge it with an Aqua Jet!"

But Golisopod continued struggling to get its claws free.

From the other side of the field, Jasmine reaches up to grab the two ear-shaped tufts of hair jutting out of her head and brings them down to act as an extra brace while she covers her ears.

"Fire!" She calls out.

Her Pokémon listens, following through by launching the orb of concentrated electricity down onto Golisopod. The attack booms like a cannon when it is launched, and similarly sounds like a bomb going off when it hits the ground and explodes into another dazzling electrical light show.

When the attack clears, a circle-shaped chunk was missing out of the Electric Terrain, showing Golisopod's limp figure lying on the stadium floor. Soon after the attack's energy fades, the mist coalesces again and covers up the body.

Jasmine lets out a brief, celebratory cheer as Lisia speaks up over the intercom.

"**What a beautiful move! I can see why Jasmine's so popular in the Sinnoh Contest circuit."**

"**And it's an impressive one to pull off,"** Nancy adds. **"Usually trainers try a Lock-On to make sure the cannon hits, but I guess it wasn't necessary when Golisopod was already trapped."**

By then, Lana had returned her fainted Pokémon and was tossing out her next.

"Hope you aren't allergic to shrimp!" She says when her Clawitzer hits the field.

Clawitzer was a simple Pokémon, all things considered. It's a two-foot tall blue shrimp with a spiky shell pattern that gives it the appearance of wearing a bandit's mask. Oh, and it has a massive right claw, twice the size of its body, with a yellow lower pincer that opens to let it fire off projectiles like a turret gun.

Simple.

"Even if I was, I don't think that shrimp could do much of anything to me!" Jasmine giggles, obviously more boisterous the more confident she became.

"We'll see about that," Lana huffs. "My little guy here can knock an Ultra Beast out of the sky from 50 meters on a cloudy day! Show her with a Smack Down!"

Clawitzer nods and aims its large claw toward Magnezone. The pincers shutter for a moment as an attack builds up, then the yellow bottom piece flies open.

A large stone is fired out of the Pokémon's cannon-like arm with a similar booming sound that Magnezone's attack had earlier. The rock lodges into Magnezone's steel body and is apparently heavy enough to send it plummeting to the ground.

The Electric-type hits the floor with another resounding bang and momentarily seems dizzy. Its impact creates another gap in the mist that fills up again. As long as the rock is stuck in its body, Magnezone is stuck on the ground.

"Don't think that's going to stop us," Jasmine says with her fists held in front of her ribbon. "Magnezone, use Lock-On!"

The circular pupil in Magnezone's main eye transforms into a square green cursor. That cursor aimlessly flies around before settling on Clawitzer. The symbol then shrinks and turns red, and now Magnezone was following its opponent's every minute movement.

"**Seems like Jasmine wants to end this battle as quick as possible with a few powerful hits,"** Diantha says. **"Can't blame her with how we've seen Lana pull through in long-games throughout the bracket."**

"Well I won't make it that easy on you." Lana holds out her fishing rod, pointing at Jasmine. "Use U-Turn and come back!"

Her little shrimp gurgles before swimming out over the Electric Terrain. It takes a roundabout path around the perimeter to reach Magnezone, only to attack with one clean swipe of its giant claw before circling back like a boomerang.

As Clawitzer comes back to Lana, it returns to its pokéball in a line of digital energy. Magnezone's eye returns to normal, its target lost.

Lana immediately follows through by throwing out her Wishiwashi.

The blue-and-white sardine immediately lets out a panicked squeak with flashing eyes. A cascade of similar fish swarm in from nowhere and surround the first Wishiwashi with a growing, amorphous blob of moving pieces. Then each part of the blob winds up snapping into place, forming a massive sharp-shaped shell of a living submarine.

"Wishiwashi, use Earthquake!"

Her large shark collective roars before deforming into a series of floating sheets. All at once the fish swim down, slamming into the ground in three distinct waves. The earth quakes underneath their impact, and even though the impact is focused on-stage their attack also shakes the audience and the arena's hanging electronics.

Jasmine falls onto her butt with a yelp. Her Magnezone looks more frazzled than ever.

"Use Zap Cannon!" She calls while the school of Wishiwashi re-form.

Her Pokémon charges up another orb of electricity and lets it loose. The energy flies just above the floor, parting the mist behind it like the wake of a boat.

However, Wishiwashi isn't stuck like Golisopod was.

Each individual fish manages to split away from the space where Zap Cannon would have struck, forming a large circle in the air.

"Aw, no!" Jasmine cries.

Lana laughs happily in turn.

"Alright, hit them with another Earthquake!"

The second quake finishes off Magnezone, and coincidentally coincides with Electric Terrain dissipating from the battlefield.

Jasmine shakily gets back to her feet after the attack passes and returns her fainted Pokémon. With a serious expression, she tosses out her next Pokémon: Klinklang.

Klinklang was a sleek and shiny collection of turning gears on a horizontal and vertical axis. It looked something like a constantly moving chair with teal blue centers for each gear on its vertical face and a pinkish-red center on the gear for its horizontal face. Only the small gear to the upper-right side of its vertical face had… Well, a face. Two eyes of different sizes, a constantly open black mouth on the third point of a triangle, and a tiny blue nose.

It was kind of easy to question just how sentient the collection of mechanisms were; but it was not easy to forget how loud all of its parts clicked together with that constant movement.

"Now Klinklang, use Wild Charge!"

As the gears begin to whir faster and build up an aura of arcing electricity, Diantha speaks up.

"**Klinklang may not be half Electric-type like Magnezone, but it can know just as many Electric-type moves!"**

The Gear Pokémon flies toward Wishiwashi, dragging a stream of electricity along after it. When it crashes into the mass of fish, a good chunk of them fall away while the rest fearfully scatter in all directions.

Wishiwashi's school comes back together on Jasmine's side of the field, slightly smaller than before.

Though the battling Pokémon had flipped sides, their trainers did not slow down.

"Wishiwashi, U-Turn!" Lana commands.

Her Pokémon floats toward Klinklang with a roar, but keeps its mouth agape once the sound passes. Out of its mouth, Lana's original Wishiwashi flies out like a torpedo and rams into the central vertical gear.

As it swims up and around to return itself, the rest of the school separates and rushes forward, pelting Klinklang one at a time as a distraction.

"**How fascinating,"** Diantha announces. **"It appears Lana is really trying to keep her momentum with these pivoting attacks!"**

By the time the school had entirely disappeared, Clawitzer was back on the field.

Right behind Klinklang.

"Hit it head-on with an Aura Sphere!" Lana says, pantomiming another line cast.

Clawitzer gurgles as it turns its large arm cannon to the Steel-type opponent. The claw vibrates and starts to pulsate with glowing red and blue energy.

"Try to distract it with a Metal Sound, Klinklang!"

Hearing Jasmine's order, Klinklang stops one of its rotating gears. The others keep trying to move against it, which causes an ear-splitting metal-on-metal screech to emanate across the stadium.

Clawitzer winces and holds its tiny left arm up as if to cover its ear, but doesn't lose its aim. The shrimp's yellow pincer opens so it can launch an orb of pure, hot energy.

The energy smashes into Klinklang's blue core like a fist, and sends each individual piece of the Pokémon flying in different directions.

They combine again on Jasmine's side of the field, but overall it appears to be rotating slower while wobbling in mid-air.

Jasmine takes a deep breath to relax and closes her eyes.

"Don't let them get you down just yet Klinklang. Use Gear Grind!"

The metallic Pokémon lets loose a pair of tiny gears that fly at Clawitzer as though they have a mind of their own.

Lana had already commanded a second Aura Sphere, so Clawitzer has its cannon claw at the forefront. It whines as the gears clasp around the large shell and grind across it, leaving cracks all the way across.

But that doesn't stop the second Fighting-type attack from firing off, this time dismantling Klinklang for good.

"Alright, this is it… I'm counting on you." Jasmine mutters to her last Pokéball once the collection of gears are returned.

"Go, Steelix!"

The Steel-type expert's signature Pokémon shakes the arena when it lands, and dwarfs Clawitzer. It was a massive, silver snake made from individual segments of hard metal boulders — some of which had spikes jutting out.

Steelix trains its sharp red eyes on the tiny shrimp, looking like it was perpetually glaring thanks to a big under bite.

Before Clawitzer can charge its third Aura Sphere in a row (Lana really wanted to make good use of that Mega Launcher boost), Jasmine orders a Thunder Fang. Her Steelix slithers out and clamps down on Clawitzer's big claw with electrified fangs. It throws its head around to whip the Water-type back-and-forth before ending the assault by flinging it to the ground.

Clawitzer lies fainted, the shell of its big claw shattered.

"You're a bigger catch than I expected, Jasmine." Lana says as she returns her Pokémon.

"Um… Likewise…" Jasmine responds with a meek smile. "You're… You know… Good at breaking past my defenses."

"Thanks!"

Wishiwashi is sent out again. The final match-up is between a pair of behemoths: A serpentine metal monster and a hive mind shark.

When they start staring each other down, the background music cuts off.

Both trainers turn their attention to Roxie, who stood in front of her bandmates, pick raised.

"Let's do it guys! One, two… One, two, three!"

The music kicks up again, this time with a quickly progressing build-up to a cheery, triumphant rendition of the traditional Unovan battle theme.

"**It's right down to the wire!"** Lisia announces.

Lana grins at the rush of energy from the music and pumps her fists.

"Wishiwashi, Earthquake!"

As her Pokémon splits apart for another slam into the ground, Jasmine shakes her head rapidly.

"Not so fast. Use Magnet Rise!"

Steelix surges with electrical energy similar to her Magnezone from earlier and floats above the ground, swimming through the air — even though Earthquake sends Jasmine stumbling over.

Lana and Jasmine start to yell their commands quicker, hoping to get attacks out before one another.

"Steelix, Autotomize!"

"Use Scald, now!"

The flying metal snake's midsection pieces start to spin around, grinding against one another. It seems to smooth out its joints, which increases the speed at which it can slither around.

However, Steelix doesn't have the chance to move before a steaming spray of high-pressure water slices across its body.

Scald leaves a few patches of smoldering fires across its body.

"**That burn might be just what Lana needs to keep her Pokémon's health up,"** Diantha says. **"If Wishiwashi loses its school, the game is over."**

"Dragon Breath!"

"Aqua Ring!"

Steelix returns fire with a slim beam of blue flames that cuts through Wishiwashi's body, scattering some of the individual fish. Wishiwashi tries to reflect some of the damage by forming a thin, watery aura around its entire body.

"Heavy Slam!"

"Oh no you don't. Double Team, Wishiwashi!"

Jasmine looks taken aback.

"What?"

Each individual fish making up the school uses Double Team at the same time, which creates an effect that looks like Wishiwashi's entire submarine form split to create two different sharks.

Steelix pauses to look between the two opponents now encircling it, trying to decide who it should hit.

"Um… O-On the left!" Jasmine says.

Her Pokémon follows the command and swims high into the air so it can crash down over the leftmost Wishiwashi.

It passes right through the figure, which evaporates like an illusion. All Steelix managed to do was stun itself by hitting the ground harder than expected.

"No!" Jasmine squeaks, covering her face with both hands.

"This is it," Lana follows with an opportunistic grin. "Wishiwashi, use Hydro Pump!"

The masses of fish turn toward Steelix and open their created visage of a mouth with a grumbling roar. Out comes a powerful blast of high-pressure water that was at least twice as big as the previous Scald.

Steelix has no chance of dodging. The water slams into its figure and washes over it, sending the massive serpent rolling across the stage.

There's a tense moment when the attack finishes and the huge volume of water starts to clear away. Lana, Jasmine, the commentators and members of the audience all watch to see whether Steelix would get back up.

It doesn't.

That takes time to sink in for Lana, who breaths in a sharp gasp as the speakers buzz to life.

"**That's that ladies and gentlemen,"** Nancy says with a giddy chuckle. **"This year's first tournament has a victor: And her name is Lana, the Alolan Trial Captain!"**

Lana continues to look around blankly as that fact washes over her along with the rancorous cheers of their audience and the band's victory jingle.

She eventually settles on a grin as Jasmine steps up with a sigh, returning her Pokémon as she approaches the smaller girl. The Johto Gym Leader looks down with a slight smile and holds her hand out.

Lana graciously shakes her hand.

"Congratulations," Jasmine mutters. "That was well won."

"It was a great match!" Lana chuckles as she taps the fishing pole in her other hand against her shoulder. "Thanks so much!"

As they pull apart, the sliding doors on Lana's side of the arena open. A pale-skinned boy in a black hat, blue-and-white striped shirt and red-hemmed black shorts runs out. He quickly ascends the stairs, and Lana smiles warmly when she sees him.

Just before they collide, the blue-haired girl leaps up so that he can spin her around when they catch one another in a hug.

"You did it!" Sun says with a laugh.

"I did!" She replies with a bit of a dizzy laugh in return after he puts her down. "And I couldn't have done it without your training, Sun."

Her Wishiwashi school had disbanded by now, and the single original fish starts to nuzzle her cheek. Lana laughs and light grabs hold of Wishiwashi to pull it into a hug.

"Couldn't have done it without YOU either, of course."

Jasmine stands back and watches the moment with a flat smile, hands folded over her belly. It was Lisia's turn on the microphone.

"**Well, that brings an end to our festivities for the day PWT fans!"**

She turns to Nancy, who nods in agreement.

"**Congratulations again to Lana, who now has the chance to come back for our big final exhibition match against the Champion's Champion on Sunday."**

"**That's right,"** Lisia continues. **"But for now it's time that we unfortunately have to say goodnight."**

"**Be sure to come back tomorrow for our second round of battles,"** Diantha says. **"The match-ups should be announced sometime tonight, so I hope you're looking forward to that as much as I am!"**

The three ladies collectively look at the camera and wave good-bye.

Not long after, the feed cuts to black.


	17. Dragon Rage

It was supposed to be a quiet night for Ethan, the Johto-based Champion of Indigo Plateau's Pokémon League.

Since he flew in late that afternoon his plan was to just settle down in the Castelia City hotel room he had booked, watch Jasmine's big battle and then tuck in early to join the next day's festivities. The boy was already well into relaxation mode: His signature yellow-and-black cap, as well as the rest of his daily travelling gear, were put away in place of a simple white undershirt and boxers patterned with repeating chibi Tyrogues.

That left him especially unprepared for a fancy green vase to get chucked across the room, where it shatters against the door with an ear-splitting crack.

"This is bullshit!" Clair yells, voice shrill as it pierces through her angry panting.

At the foot of the queen-sized bed where Ethan was sitting, a flat screen television flickers with an informational graphic:

* * *

**_Second Bracket_ — Round One**

_Battle 1:_

Roxanne vs. Misty

Battle 2:

Clair vs. Valerie

Battle 3:

Ilima vs. Morty

Battle 4:

Brycen vs. Volkner

* * *

"Don't you think you're overreacting just a little bit, Clair?" He meekly suggests. The Espeon sitting back on its hind legs in his lap mews in agreement, the red jewel on its forehead glinting in the television's light.

"Overreacting?"

Suddenly all of the ire in her burning gaze was directed at Ethan. He yelps and hugs the purple Pokémon in his lap close, as if it would protect him from the furious girl.

"I think you're underreacting, Ethan!" Clair gets up in his face, spitting venom. "How in Arceus' name is pitting me against a fairy tale floozy supposed to be fair?"

Espeon calls out calmly again, drawing Clair's eyes down. As she meets the Pokémon's sparkling and collected gaze, her fury begins to subside.

That gives Ethan the chance to clear his throat so he can speak up.

"It's all a random selection process, right?" He shrugs.

The mere suggestion causes her to double back and look even angrier than before. Ethan yelps at the sight and ducks his head slightly.

"You call this random?!" She lets out a loud, indignant scoff before whirling around and stomping over to the wall-sized window opposite the mess of pottery shards around the door.

"That bastard Clay wanted to stack the odds against me, otherwise I would easily win another one of his stupid tournaments! It's outrageous… They would never disrespect Lance this way."

Clair pounds both fists against the clear glass with another snarl.

Ethan watches from the bed, seeing her awash with the twinkling, magnificent lights of Castelia's nightlife. The city was a marvel to behold because it seemingly never slept. That sea of activity saturated her outfit even though they were dozens of stories high, giving her an ethereal glow reminiscent of the Dragonair that her costume emulated.

Even though he was terrified of her rage, it was hard for Ethan not to look upon her longingly. Espeon seems to agree with the sentiment, brushing its cheek against him.

"They did the same thing with Flannery. Setting her up to fail by throwing her against Lana, just to get someone from Alola into the finals." She turns back to Ethan and stomps her foot. "It's all a PR stunt!"

The two stare at each other, with only her growling and the banal buzz of some commercial on T.V. filling the room.

His small quadruped Pokémon is the first to break the silence. It leaps off his lap and deftly lands on the ground, then slinks over to start circling around Clair's high-heeled left boot. Its two-pronged tail stretches up past the two black rings at the end of the boot to tickle her leg.

It takes a moment, but Clair can't help but smile as she looks down to hear the Psychic-type basically scold her with sharp-tongued mewls.

"Yeah, yeah." She breaks a smile. "Whatever you say, Gem."

Ethan takes the opportunity to stand up and join them by the window.

"I hate to break it to you Clair, but the entire event is one big PR stunt." He chuckles and adjusts her cape to sit normally over her shoulders again. "I don't think they're rigging it for more views though. If they were, they wouldn't have matched a Normal-type and Ghost-type trainer."

Clair crosses her arms as she takes in his words. He had a point, but the words caught in her throat as she tried to say them.

Ethan can see her intent in the embarrassed flush starting to run across her cheeks.

"I suppose there isn't a lot of entertainment value in opposing forces that can't touch one another," she mutters.

"Exactly!"

The Champion steps back, feeling he'd done his job by appeasing the furious dragon.

But all of that energy implodes into forlorn dejection as Clair sinks into herself, hugging her hands around her shoulders and squeezing the bare skin until it turned red.

"I'm sure it will be even less exciting to watch such a one-sided fight. My dragons against Fairy-types," she sighs. "I don't know that I want to put my dragons through that kind of humiliation."

Ethan frowns. Maybe his job here wasn't done.

"I don't think you or your Pokémon are going to be humiliated out there," he says. "You are the world's best dragon master right? Pretty sure I've heard that somewhere before."

A small smile bubbles onto Clair's thousand-yard stare when he throws her own self-aggrandizing back in her face.

"I guess you might have."

"You won last year's tournament, so everyone knows that too. I'm sure you know exactly which Pokémon you can use to mitigate that weakness."

"There are a few I have on standby," she mumbles with a shrug. "I just didn't expect to have to use them right off the bat. It's not exactly easy to make good use of Pokémon like Dragalge…"

"Well if anyone can do it," he begins before pausing to take her hands so their arms create a swinging bridge. "I'm willing to bet it's you."

Clair desperately wants to pull away, yell at this stupid boy for being so needlessly idealistic and go wallow at some bar. But that needless idealism in the face of such overwhelming odds — particularly when she perpetuates most of it — is part of what drew Clair to Ethan in the first place. Ever since that first genuine, not duty-bound interaction they had in the Dragon's Den after he won her grandfather's approval.

Just thinking over it all brings a sappy smile to Clair's face. Her grumpy disposition evaporates with a half-sobbing, drunken kind of giggle.

"I hate you," she whispers.

Ethan yelps as she tugs on his hands so he would stumble into her arms. Clair envelops the boy in a tight hug. After a second, he returns it.

"Love you too, Clair."

He lets the moment stand long enough for her to sound completely relaxed, and then starts fiddling with her cape again. Hearing him mess with the fabric leaves Clair rolling her eyes, which just makes Ethan chuckle.

"What do you say I help you train a bit for the worst case scenario, yeah? Gem can learn some Fairy-type moves, so she'd be perfect to go a few rounds against if you want to toughen up your team."

As he pulls away from the hug to look for his Espeon, they would find the Psychic-type purple feline already snoring, curled up at the foot of the hotel bed.

"Well… Tomorrow morning, maybe."


	18. Bright Lights, Twin Cities

_**Before I start this chapter, I have a few acknowledgments to make. A plot element in the first half was suggested by my buddy Blazblade [ID: 8144344], while parts of the second half are inspired by the friendship dynamic in the story "Critical Hit" by Alphinia [ID:2641302]. Just without getting into the same friends-turned-lovers quota.**_

_**It's a very good story, so go read it. Just do that after you read this.**_

* * *

"Where are we going Elesa?" Skyla whines, dragging her feet as the Electric-type Gym Leader pulls her through a city gate by the wrist.

The supermodel offers the kindly young gatekeeper a wave as she sits in the corner of the transitional tunnel, donning a sky blue stewardess dress and sunhat. But then Elesa has to keep her fluffy Mareep-wool jacket from slipping off as she looks back to address Skyla's concerns.

"I told you not to worry about it, Sky." She says with a knowing smile that suggested she relished dragging out the mystery. "You'll see soon enough."

"Why can't we just grab a bite to eat and go hide under a blanket until we die or something?" Skyla huffs as she keeps her gaze away from the genial gatekeeper. "That's about all I deserve right now."

As the two women pass outside of the overwhelming fluorescent lighting of the gate and onto the small patch of land where the Pokémon World Tournament arena was situated, Elesa finally stops pulling her friend along. Instead, she turns and glares down the redhead; awash in the peripheral glow of the space they just left.

"Because that's not all you deserve!" The model squeals, clearly exacerbated. This was not the first time she'd tried convincing Skyla tonight. "I swear this whole stupid tournament has made you such a mushy Mawile…"

"Well that's what happens when you get disqualified for being an idiot."

"You weren't an idiot Sky! It was a mistake."

Elesa gently takes both of Skyla's hands and holds them up, offering her a smile. Skyla shies away from it.

"Pretty dumb mistake," the pilot mutters under her breath. "I'd just rather go sleep it off, you know? Maybe then people will forget and my reputation will be restored…"

With a scoff, Elesa pulls away and twirls around so she can strut down the path to the arena.

"Nu-uh, I'm not letting you just wallow in your own self-pity! Come on, I'll bring back my high-flying, cuddly Cubchoo yet."

Skyla reluctantly carries on, following behind her far more confident friend.

"The alliteration is cute and everything Elesa, but Cubchoo don't fly."

"Fine!" Elesa calls as she turns around to wave her arms wildly and walk backwards. "Then you can be my cuddly… Erm… Crobat!"

The mental image does bring a small smile to Skyla as she's propped up in front of the arena's main entrance by a now-frantic Elesa. Once she's in place, the model insists that she stay put before running around to the back of the building with a somewhat awkward gait thanks to her high heels.

Skyla doesn't really know what to do with herself once she's alone. The futuristic neon lights of the building before her were gone as it had been emptied out for the night, so there wasn't even a technological background noise to keep her thoughts occupied.

All she had were the sounds of waves lapping against the dock and the distant clatter of tools that she assumed were coming from Elesa.

The pilot had no idea what to expect, or when to expect it. To stave off the anxiety that was feeding into her general depressed state she tried to keep her hands occupied: Adjusting the straps on her uniform, fixing her hair, twiddling her thumbs.

Then, a flash of light blinds her.

Skyla immediately yelps and covers her eyes, turning away from the re-illuminated building. She stares at the twinkling star afterimages against the inside of her eyelids while hearing that electronic buzz pick up alongside the sounds of whirring fans.

Eventually she manages to turn back and look into the light. And she's mesmerized.

The main screen above the doorway cycles through different images of Skyla, animated much like the flashy modeling reels that play on repeat throughout the interior of Elesa's runway in Nimbasa City.

Every digital screen that acted as a roofing panel had lit up as well, but glowed like light blue skies instead of the usual oceanic, dark blues. Spotlights further illuminated the night sky; some of which were keyed to be the same light blue as the roof while others were a shade of red reminiscent of Skyla's hair.

All around those spotlights, little circular panels in the floor had opened up. Harsh wind currents blasted up out of them and carried a rainbow of confetti squares that rained back down like a coating of snow on the empty streets.

Skyla is only able to pull her eyes away from the spectacle when she sees Elesa circling back around to the front of the building with a soft smile.

Her tongue can barely keep up with the myriad of astounded thoughts running through her head, but Skyla eventually manages to eek out: "You did all this?"

"For you," Elesa responds with a collected coolness as she leans against a wall beside the doorway. "I expected to unveil it publically when you won, but why let it go to waste?"

"But this must have been so much work…" Skyla mutters.

"Frankly the hard part was keeping it secret," she says with a chuckle while kicking off the wall to saunter toward Skyla. "Clay would have killed me on the spot if he thought I was trying to make him show favoritism in spite of his, quote unquote, objective stance."

The model throws her arms around Skyla's neck and presses their foreheads together. Skyla still seemed a bit stunned, but appears more than happy to lean into the fluffy coat.

"Though I must say… It was all worth it to see your face now." Elesa grins.

The redhead doesn't respond. She simply shuts the other girl up by pulling her into a kiss; the kind of contact that shows just how quickly Elesa melted away all the inhibitions that had been bogging her down.

"I care about you, whether you win or lose. And I'm sure I'm not the only one." The model whispers against her partner's lips. "Don't ever forget it."

"Thank you," she mumbles back.

The two continue to kiss under the radiant light of Skyla's on-screen visage and the rain of confetti. They are blissfully ignorant of prying eyes that had managed to slip past the tipped-off gatekeeper in hopes of seeing what was causing such a commotion.

"Are you getting this shot?"

Gabby, still in her green top and white pants, whispers to her cameraman as they hide behind a darkened streetlamp.

"I think so," Ty whispers back. "But it might look better if I get something from the front."

"Oh! Yes, go do that!" Gabby gently pushes Ty further out into the street. "We've gotta get top-notch footage if we want to capture any attention before the next round of battles start tomorrow."

The dutiful camera operator nods, as he not so stealthily tries to hide near an empty kiosk on the dockside of the island.

From there he caught much more ambient light from the arena — and with it, Skyla's eyes around the side of Elesa's head.

"What the…" The Flying-type Gym Leader starts with a confused blurt, which leads Elesa to look back as well.

She immediately scowls seeing a camera.

"Damned paparazzi!" The girl squeals before whirling around and trying to act as some kind of shield between Skyla and the frame. "Can't we just have five minutes?"

Ty yelps and scampers back toward Gabby, who was beginning to run away too.

They both narrowly escape the angry electrical currents blasted out by Elesa's Zebstrika.

* * *

The blaring lights of the arena could be seen across the bay in Nimbasa.

However, the glitz and glamour of the 24-hour theme park in Elesa's home was an overwhelming stimulus that vastly outshined the far-off blip on the waterline. It would even be hard to notice the arena from the top of the city's world-famous Rondez-View Ferris Wheel.

Only couples were allowed to ride the upside-down Pokéball-shaped cars of the Ferris wheel. Most made it a romantic voyage, but close friends were just as eager to see the distant Castelia City skyline lit by twilight and the stars.

The two trainers circling the top of the arc seemed interested in seeing none of it.

A boy with a hat that made it look like he had a hanging mop of white hair sat toward the middle of the car's bench, repeatedly rolling a yellow-and-black Ultra Ball between his two hands. He had his legs slightly spread as he leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees.

Next to him, a sporty girl with her hair tied in a bright red ribbon leaned against the wall with her long, pale legs pulled up to her chest — almost completely covering her outfit. She hugged her sleeveless arms around her legs while texting away on a light orange, dual-screened PDA of sorts.

"You still worried about the Champion's Tournament?" The girl asks, very suddenly breaking the silence. She draws the boy's grey-blue eyes.

"There's no guarantee I'll even get into the tournament this year, May." He sighs, puffing out his cheeks a bit when he sees that she hadn't even looked up from her PokéNav to talk.

"Oh that's crazy talk. You're the best battler in Hoenn, man." May briefly looks up to offer him a warm smile. Then her eyes quickly glance back at the screen.

"Yeah well there are a lot of 'best battlers' applying for a few spots," he shrugs. "Who's to say I'm any more likely than that Red guy? Or someone like Steven?"

With a sigh, May pushes her legs out over the bench until they kick Brendan in the side. When he scowls at her for that, she offers him a cheery smile and bobs her head before folding her legs horizontally so her feet would dangle off the edge.

"How many of them have ridden a dragon into space?" She quips.

Brendan nods his head side-to-side, knowing he couldn't argue with that.

"Well okay, sure. But I'm not the only one here who has done amazing things May." He crosses his arms, hugging the Ultra Ball close to the high neck of his red-and-black cycling shirt. "You're the researcher, you should know that."

She snorts and rolls her eyes in response.

"You know I'm just keeping that up until my contest career gets off the ground."

"Oh yeah? When are you going to tell the Professor about it?"

For once her smile falls into a flat-mouthed glare. A 'can't believe you went there' kind of glare. Brendan's smile grows to balance it out.

"I'll tell Dad when I'm ready, alright?"

"He's not going to be mad. You, of all people, should know that." Brendan folds his arms behind his head. "Don't think Professor Birch has an angry bone in his body."

"You should see him when Mom eats the last biscuit…" She mumbles.

"I did once!" He quickly rebuts, leaning toward her. "Remember when me and my folks came over for dinner that one time?"

"Oh right!" May perks up, snapping her fingers as if to externalize her eureka moment. "Mom wouldn't let him live that down for weeks. It's so rare to get Norman away from his gym and—"

"… and he just made a fool of himself?" Brendan finishes for her.

They both laugh together.

But the moment ends a bit prematurely as a ringtone sounds off in Brendan's green backpack. He pulls it around onto his lap and rummages around until finding his own PokéNav.

"Oh! Oh! Do I get to make fun of you for being on the phone now, Brendan?" May asks with a smarmy grin.

He rolls his eyes.

"Hey, I have very important Champion duties to attend to. I'm not allowed to unplug."

"Sounds like an excuse," she mumbles before turning to sit normally so she can scoot closer and read over his shoulder. "How do I know this is a work thing?"

Brendan pulls his PokéNav away and turns to hide it from her.

"Would you relax? It's Phoebe. So it's definitely a work thing."

"Oh yeah? How do I know you two aren't in some kinda long-distance summer fling?" She playfully shoves his back with a grin.

"Because I asked the Elite Four to keep me up to date while Steven and I are out of town."

He starts off pretty calloused and dismissive, waving her off with a flick of the wrist. However, the longer he's staring at the device, the more serious his expression gets. Soon enough he's turning to address May directly.

"She says her grandma's concerned about a weirdo poking around Mt. Pyre." He meets her eyes with heavy wrinkles on his forehead from furrowed brows. "You think I should head back home to check it out?"

The brunette scoffs and shakes her head.

"No way, dude! Do you even know if anything is actually going on?"

"Well…"

"Besides, how often do you get to go on vacation?"

"It's not a vacation May. I'm here to compete… And you know. Represent Hoenn or whatever."

"Yeah, well…" May lets the word trail off a bit on the tip of her tongue as she swings her head around. "I'm using this as a vacation! And if you have to go home, then I lose my plus-1 status and have to go home too!"

"Real altruistic of you there," Brendan remarks with a snort.

"Shut up!" She squeaks, shoving him playfully again. "I'm sure it'll be fine. The Elite Four are still there, and Wally is too if they can't handle it! You know that kid's almost on your level."

"Yeah, almost…"

Brendan seems a bit defensive at that. He looks away and crosses his arms.

"You know he would be if your Gardevoir didn't have a BS Fairy-type advantage over his Gallade's Fighting-type."

Brendan looks back at her and raises his palms to the sky with a shrug, incensed by the accusation.

"You say that like it's my fault!"

"Nu-uh!" She puts a hand on his shoulder and shakes him. "I'm saying that like you need to relax and let other people take care of things!"

The Champion takes a deep breath and leans back against the wall of the car.

"Fine. But if Mauville's electrical grid explodes or something while we're gone, I'm blaming you."


	19. Author's Note: Going on Hiatus

_**LOTS OF TEXT ALTERATIONS TO INFLATE THE IMPORTANCE OF THE MESSAGE BELOW:**_

Hey there Pokéfans!

Hope you're all having a great Monday. I know a new chapter of this story is expected today, but instead I have a brief announcement to make. As of the last chapter, the "first act" of my Pokémon World Tournament adventure is at its end. I know that's silly to say when there are 18 chapters already, but I've always planned on splitting things up by each day of the tournament weekend.

Now that we've hit Friday night, I'm planning on putting the series on hiatus for the foreseeable future.

I've been working on this story since I first got onto this fan fiction site some months ago, and it's been a lot of fun so far! Especially when the characters I wanted to write happened to dovetail with the release of Pokémon Masters. I honestly have all of you viewers out there to thank for getting it over 2,300 views, and I greatly appreciate all of you that have been willing to favorite, follow and write reviews on the story.

I already have the general plot for the next two days of the tournament planned out, so this isn't a matter of my needing time to work things out. Besides, people like Harrison have left ideas in my review section and over private message that help shape things — don't think I've forgotten or overlooked all that.

This is simply a matter of me being a bit burned out on the story after a couple months of frequent releases. I can't say I know when I'll jump into it again, but I don't plan on leaving it alone forever. If anything I'll probably feel the need to write again after Sword and Shield drops and I'm way back into the Pokémon mood.

But in the meantime there's other content in my library for you to peruse!

My Grimsley/Shauntal one-off story, "A Tale of Two Masters," didn't get too much attention upon release, but it's a solid Pokémon-related story for those of you craving that.

I've also been releasing a three-part Legend of Zelda story called "Birds of a Feather," somewhat based on an AU mixing Ocarina of Time with Link's Awakening (coming off of the Switch remake), that will be concluding this Wednesday. So please give that a read, it's about to get very fluffy and adorable!

If neither of those speak to you, and you're not interested in my other long-term serialized Fire Emblem: Three Houses story that will be continuing, I also have more one-shots and stories planned that I'd like to focus on during this story's hiatus.

In fact, there may or may not be a project I'm discussing with my fanfic buddy Blazblade [ID: 8144344] which could happen in the near future that may be of interest to all of you. So keep an eye out for that.

With all that said, I've also been trying to work out more ways of taking possible story suggestions from you, the audience! I put some more details in my recently retrofitted account bio, but in essence I'm interested in working on stories for commission. If you want to see me bring one of your favorite games/movies/stories and their characters to life, we can discuss some options either through a private message here or through the Fiverr account I've set up.

Once again, thank you all so much for sticking with me on this weird little experiment. Hopefully you'll all still be around when it comes back!

\- Jason


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